Quintessential Hero
by Archer83
Summary: Post-ME3 and starts during The Avengers movie. Just a little bit of Star Trek in the first chapter. Thanks to a certain omnipotent being with a penchant for mind games, Samantha Shepard finds herself in a strange new world. Rated M just to be safe.
1. Chapter 1

Quintessential Hero

Disclaimer: I own nothing except this author's twisted imagination!

Summary: Post-ME3. Thanks to a certain omnipotent being with a penchant for mind games, Samantha Shepard finds herself in a strange new world.

Author's Note: Apparently even Q is disappointed in the latest endeavor from... a certain Canadian game developer. This is my first fic and I hope you enjoy it. Constructive criticism is welcomed, as I'm trying to improve my writing skills. Total flamers need not apply.

Chapter 1

As he watched the final moments of one of the more interesting humans he had discovered in the multi-verse, the being know simply as 'Q' was deeply disappointed at the outcome.

_'How dull'_, he thought.

Yet another interesting mortal had caught his attention, only to end up going out with a metaphorical whimper instead of a bang.

He had, surprisingly even to himself, been rooting for her the whole time since he had discovered this fascinating universe.

Leaning over her, he gently brushed her auburn hair away from her emerald eyes, a look of steely determination forever burned into her features.

Frowning, he realized how empty he felt at the ending to this tragic little tale.

"This wont do at all.", He muttered to himself.

Looking down at her ruined armor and scorched remains he quietly said, "If anyone truly deserved a third chance at life it's you, _Mon __Capitaine de frégate__.__" _

Suddenly, a wicked little idea entered into his mind, one in a long, long, line of wicked little ideas, and a devilish grin replaced his grim frown.

With just a simple snap of his fingers he healed the woman's most severe injuries, restoring life to her broken form.

_'No point in healing all of her wounds'_, he mused.

That would take away some of the challenge for her and hence lessen his delight at watching her overcome situations where she should have died dozens, if not hundreds, of times.

Admiring his work, Q gazed at the, now very much alive, woman and said, "Welcome back to the land of the living Shepard."

**Ah yes, "Page breaks", a literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim. ************  
**

As Samantha Shepard slowly regained consciousness her first thought was_, 'So this is what heaven is like? Huh... kinda boring_.'

She now appeared to be surrounded by an area of endless bright white in every possible direction.

The second thing she noticed, aside from the pain emanating from her whole body, was a tall man standing over her, in a Fleet Admiral's uniform no less.

After a short pause he barked, "On your feet Commander!"

Then he proceeded to lean over and, impatiently, offered her a hand.

She took it and shakily got to her feet snapping off as good a salute as she could muster, as well as a, "Yes sir!", once she was fairly sure that she wasn't going to tumble back to the ground.

As he snapped off a salute in return, Shepard realized that she had never met this man before.

She carefully took in her new surroundings as she said, "Ah, sir, mind telling me who you are, how you know me, and for the matter, where the hell we are right now?"

He grinned at her and replied, "Blunt and straight to the point, I always liked that about you! Lets just say, I'm someone whose very interested in giving you another chance Commander, your third by my count."

"What do you mean by giving me a third chance?" Suddenly her eyes widened, as she continued, "Wait... are you telling me that... I'm dead?"

He grinned and said, "Well walking directly into a fiery explosion does tend to have that effect on most people. Just out of curiosity, any particular reason why you used that... _profound_... strategy?"

She looked down at her feet and Q could clearly hear the guilt in her words, "I did what needed to be done. To be honest sir... I had had enough of seeing my friends and countless innocents slaughtered... and I thought I was a dead woman anyway, so I figured what the hell."

At this Q boomed, "That is NOT acceptable Shepard! The first time you shuffled off this mortal coil at least it was for a reason, namely, that idiotic pilot, Joker, you like so much. But to just give up and die... that's not the woman I've watched... well I mean... that's just not like you at all."

Shepard took a step back at the man's tirade and with a suspicious tone replied, "Alright just who the hell are you really, and why the hell do you know so much about me?"

After a few moments he seemed to calm down and answered, "As for who... or rather what I am, you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you anyway. All you need to know is that I've been observing your exploits, well... most of your life. Everything from Mindoir, to Akuze, to your battles against Saren, Sovereign, Harbinger, the Collector base, _everything_."

Shepard was beginning to feel the need to get away from this man, how could he possible know every major event in her entire life? What _was _he? She was still unsteady on her feet, but she'd be damned if this crazy imposter was going to get any closer to her.

"Just stay right there... come any closer and I _will_ hurt you, no matter what uniform your wearing." As if to emphasize her point, a biotic blue aura blazed into existence around her body.

A look of sadness appeared on Q's face but just as quickly as it appeared it was gone, replaced with a wry grin and a look of pride instead.

"That's the Shepard I know! You know, the one with fire in her eyes, full of, how do you humans put it? Ah yes, piss and vinegar. Good! I'm glad to see that everything you've lived through hasn't broken you down! That's always going to be why you are who you are Shepard. Why people are always going to trust you, follow you, depend on you, _believe_ in you. Remember that Shepard, your going to need it."

He glanced at, the still glowing, Shepard, who was obviously ready for a fight, even in her less than stellar condition and tried to assure her, "Listen I'm not going to harm you Shepard, actually, I'm going to give you a gift."

"Why do I think this _gift _of yours is going to be something horrible?", Shepard snapped back at him.

Q smirked and replied, "Well to be fair, I suppose it will be your opinion alone on whether or not or it's horrible, but not everyone gets to see an entirely different universe every day do they?"

A confused Shepard said, "What the hell what are you talking about, what different universe?"

"You'll see soon enough Shepard.", Q responded with a gleam in his eye. "Oh, the name's Q, by the way, and if your very lucky I might drop by from time to time... Now... you better lay down before you fall down Samantha."

Suddenly, Shepard was severely dizzy and, somehow, even more confused, "What the hell... are you talking about? And who the hell has a name like...". A sudden, blindingly bright, flash of light stunned her as she, _once again,_ found herself in strange new surroundings.

A/N: Just in case you didn't notice, Q was probably a bit smitten with Shepard after watching her all those years. In my mind this is why he'd decided to play dice with the multi-verse by giving her one more chance at life. Her Stark situation will be continued in chapter 2!

_Capitaine de frégate = _French for the rank of Frigate Captain / Commander


	2. Chapter 2

Quintessential Hero

Disclaimer: I own nothing except this author's twisted imagination!

Summary: Post-ME3 and starts during The Avengers. Thanks to a certain omnipotent being with a penchant for mind games, Samantha Shepard finds herself in a strange new world.

Author's Note: Now the real fun begins! I'd like to thank anyone who has read and/or alerted my story. A special thank you to Ordo Rolanberry who was nice enough to give me my first review!

Chapter 2

Tony Stark's second thought, after practically being flash blinded, was, _Huh, who's that hot red head that just appeared,out of nowhere, in my damn living room. _His first, not surprisingly, was, _Aahhh damn it to hell! My fucking eyes!. _

Loki seemed distracted by this new arrival as well. Actually, he looked almost as confused and stunned as Stark was. Tony took this moment to surreptitiously place a bracelet on each of his wrists before he walked out from behind the bar.

The woman, obviously disoriented and apparently wounded, slowly got up from where she had appeared on the floor and quickly spotted Loki and himself. She took a few hesitant steps back from them, Tony noticing how she never let either of them out of her sight.

Tony was about to break the awkward silence when she beat him to it. "Alright... I don't know where the hell I am this time, or who you two gentlemen are, but either of you takes one step toward me..." Tony couldn't believe his eyes as she suddenly looked as if she was covered in a blueish glow from head to toe. "You'll wish you hadn't been born."

This caused Loki to give her that charming/evil smile of his as he said, "You _are_ a wondrous creature my dear, and so full of _heart_!" and he tentatively started to approach her.

"Yeah, awesome trick lady, but just listen to me! I know you don't know me from Adam, but DON'T let Reindeer Games over there get anywhere near you. Especially with that pointy glow stick of his."

Tony hoped the woman would listen to him as Loki starting to get dangerously close to her. "You have nothing to fear from me my lady." Loki gave her a slight bow and continued, "I am Loki, the-soon-to-be ruler of this world. Do not listen to this pompous, arrogant, _fiend. _You and I could be powerful allies, just allow me to show that I mean you no harm._"_

It must have been that creepy smile of his, or his ridiculous costume, or maybe the fact he reeked of pure evil. Whatever tipped her off, Tony sighed in relief when she responded to Loki's generous offer what a blunt, "Go. Fuck. Yourself."

All pretense of politeness instantly forgotten, Loki shouted, "You _will _pay for that insult, you mewling quim!" and then he lunged at her. Tony instantly moved to place himself in between this interesting/scary/kinda sexy woman and Loki's obvious wrath. Expecting much worse, Tony only heard a soft _ting_ as Loki's spear tapped against the Arc Reactor in his chest. "Performance issues?" Tony snarked, as he glared up at Loki.

"Um excuse me, Mr...?" Tony looked over his shoulder at the red head who was now standing behind him. "Oh right, how rude of me, Stark, Tony Stark." She smirked and replied, "Hey Tony, you can call me Shepard... Now could you do me a favor a move a few steps to the right?" "Ah, sure... no problem honey." And then, the blue-glowing-woman, Shepard, preceded to unleash a glowing wave of energy, think Shockwave x10 , directly at Loki sending him flying across the room where he smashed into the far wall in a daze.

Then she looked back over her shoulder at an amazed Tony Stark, "Honey... really?". As 'Shepard' gave Tony a wry grin he mentally added her to the top of his 'People I Seriously Do Not Want To Piss Off' list. "I may have misspoken, what I _meant to say_, was beautiful fiery haired goddess? ...Please don't kill me, I mean _that _would really suck." When she stopped glowing and started laughing softly, he took it as a good sign.

Shepard suddenly moved and Tony realized he hadn't even noticed Loki, still in shock, slowly walking towards them, with spear in hand. The glow around her reappeared and it was as if Loki had instantly frozen in place with a paler blue glow surrounding him. Tony was dumbfounded when she slowly walked right up to Loki and told him, "Stay! Good boy. Who's the mewling quim now, Tall Dark and Creepy? Whatever the hell that means..."

A/N: Even though she essentially has the worst back story possible, (Colonist orphan, sole survivor on Akuze, and the deaths of several of her closest friends.) Samantha has managed to maintain a Paragade personality, FYI. So she'll be cautious, while treating everyone fairly... just don't piss her off. Seriously Tony, just don't do it.

Tony: Well how the hell do I have any fun with her?

Archer83: Not my problem buddy.

Tony: What _does _mewling quim mean anyway?

Archer83: You don't want to know... and for Loki's sake lets hope Shepard (or Natasha for that matter) doesn't find out.


	3. Chapter 3

Quintessential Hero

Disclaimer: I own nothing except this author's twisted imagination!

Summary: Post-ME3 and starts during The Avengers. Thanks to a certain omnipotent being with a penchant for mind games, Samantha Shepard finds herself in a strange new world.

Author's Note: Once again I'd like to thank anyone who has read, favored and/or alerted my story. A special thank you to Ordo Rolanberry, Zanji of clan okami, TheNoWhereMan, and DN7 for their reviews. Reviews are the Arc Reactor, the Eezo, the antimatter, which drives an author. Well now, Tony has got to get his ass moving. But i figure he's only a minute or two behind without the 'fun' of almost becoming street pizza.

Tony: Archer, please man you _really_ have to tell me that the phrase means. Like right now!

Archer83: Oh god... Tony what did you do now...

Tony: Well, I asked JARVIS about it and he actually refused to tell me. Stupid machine... Anyway, after that I grabbed Pepper and asked her...

Archer83:... *facepalms* Let me guess... she got mad, slapped you, and walked away. Probably because it means *leans over and whispers in Tony's ear* (Seriously not going to say what 'mewling quim' means even in an M rated fic. Google it if you dare.)

Tony: Oh. Crap. I'm going to have to name the next tower we build after her... and a daycare center... and a hospital, just to be safe.

Chapter 3

Moments after wrapping that giant ass, Loki, in a Stasis field, Samantha immediately dropped down into one of Tony's couches. She had never felt more exhausted in her life.

Whatever that fake Admiral had done to her, it seemed to have greatly improved her state of health. Instead of feeling as if she was at death's door, now she could lower that to just incredibly sore, aching, burned, and _extremely _tired. More or less normal for one Commander Samantha Shepard.

Stark distracted Samantha from her thoughts, saying, "Hey Shep, could you do _me _a favor and watch the Douchebag of Chaos for a while... seems like you have him under control."

She looked at Tony, to tired to even complain about his instant nickname for her, and then glanced over at said Douchebag.

Even though Loki was only able to move his eyes his features still gave off a 'I will rain a thousand hells upon you the second I'm free' vibe.

She just nodded at Tony and enjoyed the simple rare pleasure, for her at least, of sitting still for a few minutes.

"Here take these, don't worry it's just something to cut the pain until I can get you some real help." Tony quickly handed her a glass of water and two small pills.

"Thanks.", Shepard mumbled, as she swallowed the pills and greedily drank down the water.

"Okay... only one more favor for now... Please don't go ape shit on me with your blue-glowy-powers in the next 30 seconds. JARVIS, activate the Mark VII armor... now."

Shepard didn't understand what the hell he was talking about, until an instant later. She jumped up from the couch, tiredness forgotten, as a large case suddenly extended from the wall and snapped open.

"Sir please hold out your arms and remain _very _still, as this is my first time deploying this particular design on the fly, so to speak."

Tony backed up to within a foot from the case raised both his arms to shoulder height and replied, "Alright JARVIS, pretending it's Easter, any time now."

"How tasteful of you, Sir.", JARVIS replied. Was it just Samantha's imagination, or did the A.I., she guessed, sound sarcastic?

In a matter of seconds Shepard was shocked to see Tony go from a man wearing a black t-shirt, with some weird lettering on it, and pants, to being fully sealed in a rather badass looking red and gold suit of armor. She just gaped at him in wonder as he smirked at her, almost reading her mind, "Yup totally awesome, right?". Then the face plate snapped down completely protecting him.

"Just hold the fort and don't take your eye's off His Annoying Bitchiness until I get back!"

Shepard snapped off a wry two finger salute, saying "Aye,aye Captain Obvious!", and before she could even ask him how she could lay her hands on some kick ass armor like his, he proceeded to crash straight through one of the room's floor-to-ceiling windows.

"I need a goddamn vacation.", Samantha complained to the room in general as she plopped back down onto the couch and tried to simply keep her eye's open and locked on Loki, who was still giving her his best 'Death to you!' glare.

**Ah yes, "Page breaks" a literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim.**

"Oh. Shit!", Shepard sat bolt upright when she realized she'd dozed off for a moment. The events of the past half-hour or so came screaming back into to her mind. As she quickly looked over at Loki's spot, she found that it was disturbingly vacant.

"I truly hope you had a fine slumber, _my dear._", Loki, who was now sitting on the other end of the couch, devilishly grinned at her. "I want you to at least be of some _challenge_... before I sick you on that bastard Stark and his naive friends..."

Before she could even activate her biotics he moved in a flash, the short blade of his spear less than an inch away from her neck. "Now, now. We mustn't have a repeat performance for your earlier exploits."

Shepard was mentally berating herself for being STUPID enough to give him this window, no matter how exhausted she was.

"After you help to kill my enemies, and bring me _Stark's _head.", Shepard could read all to well the look in his eyes and his charming smile, "Well lets say... I have some _very special _plans for you.", as he slowly scraped the blade along what remained of her chest piece.

Loki was disturbed from his dark thoughts when something huge, green, and very, very angry crashed through one of the windows that Tony hadn't managed to break earlier.

That was all the distraction Samantha needed as she kicked Loki's arm away and jumped from the couch, instinctively forming a protective Barrier around herself.

Loki just glared at their new arrival, who was going a fantastic job of freaking the hell out of Shepard. This only proved to her exactly how _fucking crazy _Loki truly was. He just sneered at this green giant and shouted, "Stop! I am a god you dull creature, and I will not be bullied by..."

What happened next was not exactly a surprise to Shepard. Loki on the other hand, had the biggest damn surprise of his entire immortal life. The huge, green, and very, very angry monster preceded to beat the ever loving shit out of him, repeatedly.

Right in the middle of their 'playtime' Loki had actually had the nerve to yell for Shepard to help him. "Please! I beg you my fair lady, show mercy, PLEASE HELP ME!"

Shepard just gave him a wicked grin saying, "So... should I help you before or after your plan to turn me into a murder... _and your little rape toy_!" This last part was so full of acid and hate, the green monster actually paused, slammed Loki into the floor, and took notice of her.

Samantha was absolutely terrified. This _thing_ just stared at her for several, seemingly endless, seconds. And then it looked at her with... compassion... sadness maybe? Then it yet out an ungodly roar, and slammed it's huge foot down on Loki over, and over, and over again, until Loki was _beneath _the floor.

For the rest of her life Samantha Shepard would never forget what happened next. The green monst... the green person, she corrected herself, looked back at her and pointed at Loki.

And then it... he... spoke, "PUNY GOD!", as he slowly backed away from her. Shepard lowered her Barrier, watching as her, newest, biggest, and greenest, friend stomped out of the room.

A/N: Well, I had to start getting to the Shepard/Banner story sooner or later, right? I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I did while writing it. Hopefully I properly conveyed what an unbelievable bastard Loki truly is.


	4. Chapter 4

Quintessential Hero

Disclaimer: I own nothing except this author's twisted imagination!

Summary: Post-ME3 and starts during The Avengers. Thanks to a certain omnipotent being with a penchant for mind games, Samantha Shepard finds herself in a strange new world.

Author's Notes: Thank you to everyone who has read, favored and/or alerted my story. A special thank you to Ordo Rolanberry x2 (Thanks Ordo!), Zanji of clan okami, TheNoWhereMan, DN7 x2 (You D man!) and mwjen for their reviews. I'm loving how this list just keeps on getting longer every day! FYI to all my readers, in case your wondering which of the biotic classes Samantha is skilled in, she is an Adept. Oddly convenient for her, as she has none of her advanced weapons. Thanks to DN7 for pointing out the possible advances the (currently damaged) tech in her armor could bring. But no one could possibly fix or reverse engineer all that highly adavanced tech... Oh, right. *glances over at Tony*

Tony: I find your lack of faith... disturbing. But I gotta say, I can't wait to get that armor off of her... for purely inventive reasons.

Archer83: I found it disturbing when you gave Shepard two pain pills and left her alone with a dangerous psychopath.

Tony:...

Archer83: Burn! ...No, no wait, not that burn! NOOOO! *Wipes fire retardant away from his eyes*

Tony: Good boy, DUM-E.

Update: I have edited the hell out of this thing, so hopefully I got all the major errors, my bad, me no pruuf reed well. :P Also I added in a fun little idea from DN7!

Chapter 4

Shepard still couldn't quite believe what had happened only minutes earlier. She did know one thing though, she owed one large-green-savior, big time. Samantha was internally fuming at having to need a distraction from Loki's tender mercies in the first place.

As she walked over to the new small crater in Tony's living room, containing a now bleeding Loki, a thought crossed her mind, _maybe I should just finish this piece of scum... before he hurts anyone else. _Loki could only look up at her, still in a daze, and with a slightly terrified expression on his face, as her right hand blazed with blue light.

Samantha leaned closer to him, "I bet your thinking right now,_ if only I had been nicer to her_, instead of my usual asshole self.", Loki winced as her bioticly enhanced fist smashed into the debris an inch from his head. "Little late now though...", she finished with a dark grin.

Stepping away from him, Shepard carefully picked up the nearby weapon he had dropped and, once again, wrapped him in a Stasis field. _Fool me once..., _she thought, as she gazed at the nasty little weapon, and resolved to stay awake no matter what.

For the first time, she truly had a chance to take in the, now trashed, room around her and, more importantly, the view outside. Shepard could see smoke coming from, and obvious damage to, several of the nearby buildings. Several small craft seemed to be attacking the city, firing into buildings and strafing the streets. Firing on... what looked like military forces, as well as civilians. Along with these attackers, she noticed a few large ships that had the appearance of... _Was that a fucking giant mechanical SNAKE that just pasted the window?_ _Oh shit, it almost looks like another Reaper invasion._

Wishing she had so much as a pistol, Samantha stepped through one of the broken windows and out onto the large balcony beyond. _Is that the Empire State building? Well, at least I know where I am, seems like Earth just can't get a break in any universe._

As she glanced back over her shoulder, she was taken aback by the sight. Some type of device, at the very top of the building, twenty feet above her, was sending a bright beam of energy into the sky. This beam seemed to have already ripped open some type of portal or gateway, right in mid-air, several hundred feet above her head. It was obvious from the endless stream of enemies being expelled out of the portal, Shepard had to shut down that device ASAP.

Next to this device Shepard saw two people, franticly talking with each other and pointing to it, an older man and a young woman. Suddenly, the man looked right at her and shouted, "You there! Don't move, please stay right where you are!". Shepard looked into the room she had just walked out of to see the young red headed woman burst through a door with, Shepard noted, a weapon in her hand. Instantly, Shepard covered herself in a Barrier and primed her biotic powers. The woman came running towards her, weapon up, ordering, "Drop that spear right now or I'm dropping you!"

Shepard was almost insulted that she wasn't intimidated by her biotic display, after all, everyone else had been. "I wouldn't shoot, if I were you. That old relic belongs in a museum, and besides that, the round might ricochet and hit your pretty little face." At this taunt, the pretty-little-red-head proceeded to unload the gun's clip at Shepard, and was stunned when it had absolutely no effect whatsoever on her target.

Looking at the surprised woman Shepard quipped, "So is it my turn now, or can we just talk?". As she readied a Warp blast Shepard continued, "Seems kinda rude to kill someone without even telling them your name. I'm Commander Samantha Shepard, and... wait do I smell gum powder... wow that little pop-gun of yours actually _is _as old as it looks." Lowering her gun the woman replied, "I'm SHIELD Agent Natasha Romanoff, Commander."

Shepard quickly glanced at the situation around them, which as definitely NOT improving. "Well _Agent _Romanoff, what can I help you with on this, apparently, really crappy day? No wait, let me guess... you need help shutting _that _down." Shepard motioned in the direction of the portal device.

Natasha careful holstered her pistol and said, "Shepard, since I'm still breathing, I'm going to take a wild guess that we're on the same side here. I don't have any time to explain every thing thats going on. What I need is for you to give me the spear your holding and for you to trust me... now." Shepard just raised an eyebrow and waited a beat.

Romanoff must really have been under time pressure, as she continued, "Just follow me, damn it! Quickly!" Shepard could see the desperation in her bright green eyes... and knew she wasn't lying. "Lead the way, Romanoff."

**Ah yes, "Page breaks" A literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim.**

Now on the roof standing next to Natasha Romanoff and one Professor Erik Selvig, who had quickly introduced himself as Shepard took in the full battle. Romanoff gave her a pointed look saying, "Shepard we're going to need your help holding these things off for the next few minutes while we try to shut this thing down." "Here, Shepard, hand me the spear!", this from the good professor.

Biotics fully charged, Shepard was damned and determined that she was going to help keep these people alive. "Well, time to make Jack proud!", Shepard mused aloud, as she handed Loki's spear to, a now confused looking, Erik Selvig, and started looking for targets of opportunity.

A group of three of the smaller craft, similar to those, she had seen earlier was headed directly towards them. Focusing, Shepard ensnared them in a Singularity, then proceeded to smash them to pieces, with the strongest Warp blast she could muster.

Another craft flew by and it's passengers jumped onto the roof, not ten feet away from her. "Really? You've got to be kidding me!", Shepard snarled at them, as they raised their staff-like weapons at Samantha and her charges. Shepard just flung a glowing arm at them, and a split second later, they were Pushed off the roof to their deaths.

Taking a short break to try and recover some of her lost energy, Shepard couldn't help but notice Natasha and Erik staring at her in near awe. She smirked and said, "If you think this is cool, Jack would have probably scared the shit out of you!" Just then a loud roaring could be heard above them. They all gazed up to see another of the massive snake-like ships coming out of the portal, straight at them.

Shepard rapidly thought of any way she might be able to disable or destroy this giant coming at them like a freight train form hell. And then, she remembered a conversation with one of she early instructors. "So sir, all I need to do is create two mass effect fields focused on a single admixtion point and... I guess, just yank them apart. Right?" "Correct Private Shepard! Although, we usually shorten that to 'Ripping The Motherfucker Apart!'."

Shepard focused every ounce of her biotic strength and willpower on the center-line of the huge ship barreling towards her. With a massive burst of energy she moved her hands close together... and then threw them violently apart to either side of her body.

The result was spectacular. The gigantic machine was torn in two, as if it was made of tin foil, wreckage scattering everywhere. As Samantha dropped to her knees in utter exhaustion, she saw the _weirdest _thing she had ever seen... today... at least. _Why is Tony holding onto a missile?_

A/N: I was saying to myself while writing this, wait a second self, you haven't really shown off the bad-assery of one Commander Samantha Shepard yet. Yeah... but at least Shepard distracted Loki from the fight, I mean that HAD to make it easier on the Avengers, right? No. More. Bad-Assery. Now! I hope this chapter fixed that! Well the battle is almost won! I sense... Samantha giving Tony a little help in the near future... also shawarma, so much shawarma. The technical explanation of "Ripping The Motherfucker Apart" goes to an artist and amazing writer by the name of koopismo on deviantart (dot) com, His Mass Effect comic is one of the best I've ever read. Be sure to check it out!


	5. Chapter 5

Quinntessential Hero

Disclaimer: If I actually owned any of this... that would be so damn awesome! Sadly, I do not.

Summary:Post ME3, and starts during The Avengers movie. Thanks to a certain omnipotent being with a penchant for mind games, Samantha Shepard finds herself in a strange new world.

Author's Notes: HOLY SHIT! 1,874 Hits? 570 Visitors? Thank you to everyone who has read, favored and/or alerted my story! A special thank you to all my reviewers! When we last left our daring hero's,Tony was doing his best impression of Superman.

Tony: Oh man! Now THAT was a good movie! Almost as good as any movie that's about me... I mean Chris Reeve was the best Superman there ever was or will be...

Archer83: Ah, Tony? Tony, are you okay buddy? Wait... are you _crying?_

Tony: *sniffles* Absolutely not! I gotta go... invent something awesome, bye.

Chapter 5

Shepard's jaw dropped when she saw what was heading straight for them."What is he DOING?", she shouted, as she stood back up, walking over to Selvig and Romanoff. Samantha could tell by the look in their eyes something had gone horribly wrong.

"Apparently the Council thought it would be a good idea to Nuke the city rather than lose containment.", Romanoff replied. "Why is there always some jackass Council!", Shepard fumed.

Just then, the missile, plus one red and gold suit of armor, arched up and headed directly towards the center of the portal. It instantly dawned on Shepard what Stark was trying to do, _Tony, you clever son of a bitch! _

Samantha looked over at Natasha and noticed that she had breached the device using Loki's spear. Shepard questioned, "How long does he have!" "Less than a minute! He better move his ass, I'm shutting this down one way or another!", the agent replied.

Shepard had never rooted so hard, for someone she had known so little, as she watched Tony safely guide the missile into the portal's event horizon... and then he was gone.

"Closing the portal now!", Romanoff said, Shepard grabbed her arm, "Give the man a few seconds Natasha." The agent nodded her head and complied. They waited a hopeful few seconds, and then, "I'm sorry, Tony.", and Natasha proceeded to shut the device off.

Moments later, all of the invading alien forces seemed to shut down as if someone flipped a switch. The portal was already visibly shrinking and would cease to exist in a matter of seconds.

Samantha put her hand on Natasha's shoulder, "He was a brave man." Natasha just nodded as they stared, empty-eyed, at the last tiny hint of the portal as it began to close.

"Did you see that!", all of them shouted simultaneously, as a red and gold speck fell out of the portal, just as it evaporated. "That lucky bastard!", this from Selvig, as they watched Tony falling and falling and falling...

Natasha shouted, "He's not stopping! Damn it! We need to do some-", before she could even finish, a blue glow formed around Tony's plummeting form and his descent started to slow.

"I got this!", Shepard grunted out, with a stained expression plastered on her face. "Anywhere in particular you want me to drop Rocket Boy? ...Quickly."

Natasha was already alerting someone, but Shepard couldn't make out who she was talking to, as one hundred percent of her concentration was on not letting Tony get turned into street pizza.

Tony was already well below them, and thankfully still slowing, as Shepard noticed a small group of people gather around the spot where she managed to,not so gently, set him down.

With a feeling of complete satisfaction, Samantha turned to Natasha and Erik saying, "Hey are you guys hungry, because I'm friggin' starving."

_Huh, how come everything is going sideways?, _Shepard thought, as she fell towards the gravel. The last thing she felt was Erik and Natasha grabbing her, and gently lowering her on to the ground.

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks" A literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim. **

Shepard's first thought, when she regained consciousness was, D_amn it! Not twice in one day!_ As she opened her eye's, she half-expected Loki to be leering at her again.

She jolted in surprise, when not one, but six, concerned looking faces greeted her. "Whoa! Just stay claim ma'am, I promise, everything is going to be alright.", Shepard looked the at the blonde man who had spoken, and couldn't help noticing he was in a ridiculous red, white, and blue getup with a star emblazoned on his chest.

Still only half-awake, Shepard smirked and said, "Sure thing, Captain Subtle." Then Samantha realized she was, once again, back in Tony's, now busted to hell, living room and laying on one of his couches. She also saw that wounds on her abdomen, legs, arms and hands had been tended to. "Hey... what happened to me up there... and how exactly did I get down here?"

"Um, well ma'am you were badly injured and unconscious when the rest of us got here... and ah..." _Oh wow, is he seriously blushing at me right now_?, mused Shepard. "I ah, carried you down here ma'am, we also took the liberty of disinfecting and bandaging some of your injuries."

She started to relax when she recognized, a now armor-less, Tony Stark, as well as Natasha Romanoff, standing toward the back of the group. The blonde, _kinda cute in a corny way, _Shepard thought, continued, "I'm Steve Rogers ma'am and this is...", He proceeded to motion to each of his companions in turn, "SHIELD Agents,Clint Barton and Natasha Romanoff, Tony Stark, Thor Odinson, and Dr. Bruce Banner.

"Steve, she's already met me ,Natasha, and Bruce... sort of.", an annoyed looking Tony finished for him." Shepard sat up fully, and in a slightly groggy voice said, "Commander Samantha Shepard, good a meet you, so I'm guessing your all Tony's friends?"

"Indeed Lady-Commander Shepard! We all have become very close to Friend Stark as of late, and are grateful your actions saved him from a grim demise!", 'Thor' stood, as if at attention, beat a fist against his chest, and lightly bowed to her. "We owe you a great Debt of Honor Lady-Commander!"

"Sorry, I'm sure that was really important Mr. Ordinson, but _why _exactly are you dressed like someone out of ye olde Renaissance fair?" Thor looked a bit taken aback by this, but Tony stepped in before he could respond, "Oh _that, _just ignore it, Thor here is from another planet, Ass-guard. Capes are all the rage there, apparently. Also he's a Demi-god, just FYI." This earned a rather annoyed look from Thor.

"Oh, and Brucey here...", Stark put his hands on the shoulders of the man sitting between Steve and Thor, who promply dropped his head in embarrassment, as Tony added, "I've been informed that you've already gotten to see his huge-green-rage-monster one man show."

Shepard's head was starting to pound from information overload, and she was more confused than ever. _Screw it, might as well get this over now._ "Okay... what the hell. Here it comes. I'm from an alternate universe and also the future... What?... I'm not crazy!... Stop looking at me like that!" When all she got was six blank stares in return, she continued, "Aliens, Huge-Green-Rage-Monsters, and Demi-Gods, you have no problem with, but Alternate universes & time travel? THAT's where you draw the Line? Seriously?

Tony was the first to respond to her little tirade saying, "Well I for one, think that is _fucking awesome_. Now, who wants to get some food, I'm buying." Stunned, Shepard replied, "Um, you guys ever try shawarma?", Suddenly everyone gave her the oddest look, as Tony said, "Okay, I officially love this woman!", as Steve offered her a hand and gently helped her up off the couch.

A/N: I guess they took that a lot better than Shepard was expecting. Something tells me they'll try her chow suggestion and take a WELL deserved break. Remember reviews are love!


	6. Chapter 6

Quintessential Hero

Disclaimer: If I actually owned any of this... that would be so damn awesome! Sadly, I do not.

Summary:Post ME3, and starts during The Avengers movie. Thanks to a certain omnipotent being with a penchant for mind games, Samantha Shepard finds herself in a strange new world.

Author's Notes: Wow... just wow, I certainly didn't think I'd get noticed like this in less than a week! Thank you to everyone who has read, favored and/or alerted my story! A special thank you to all my reviewers!

Sorry folks no massive explosions, shootouts, or biotics, in this chapter. Just a group of friends and their guest, eating schwarma, relaxing, and getting to know each other. Well maybe a _little_ biotics...

Just as an FYI, they are seated, clockwise starting with Shepard, Samantha / Bruce / Clint / Natasha / Steve / Thor / and Tony.

Chapter 6

Sitting around a table with her six new friends in a damaged schwarma restaurant, broken glass still being swept off the floor, Shepard finally got a chance to actually eat something, relax, and think.

_These people look just as beat to hell and exhausted as I am, _Samantha pondered, as she sat back, and took stock of the crazy mix of characters seated around the table. _How could these people have possibly become a hardened team, let alone friends.? _

She had talked with them for what seemed like hours about lighthearted and general topics, mostly staying away from anything sensitive. She was now slowly looked around the table at each of her dining companions, thinking about each of them in turn.

_Well what do I have here... _an_ apparently brilliant scientist with an obvious medical condition. A 'Tall, Quiet and Brooding' type, who uses an actual freakin' bow and arrow. The secretive woman, who probably has a dark past. The young kid with a big heart, who it turns out is actually closer to 95 years old, on top of being a some type of super soldier. A boisterous friggin' Demi-god, from a realm called Asgard, in a red cape. And finally... our own self-described Genius-Billionaire-Playboy-Philanthropist._

In very weird way, they reminded Shepard of her own crew-mates, who she found herself thinking of more and more... now that she wasn't as distracted by, yet another, damn alien invasion.

Just then, she had a rather selfish thought, _I hope Jeff grabbed as many of them he could, and got Normandy the hell out of there. It'd be nice if some of my distant friends are alive and safe, somewhere..._

But as soon as she started going down that path Shepard chided herself,_ Best to worry about what I can do NOW. Moping over things I can't change is only going to make me depressed at best... and at worst... crazy_.

Shepard glanced over at Bruce, who seemed to be trying his best not to crack a smile, and was thoroughly enjoying his food. She couldn't help thinking about the fact that, apparently he and 'The Other Guy', as he put it, they had briefly talked on the way over on the restaurant, were one-and-the-same.

_So __your__ my Big-Green-Savior huh? _Samantha was curious as hell to find out exactly what was going on _there._ But, she figured it could probably wait for a later time, as he seemed to get nervous went she mentioned it earlier to him. So she'd let it drop, but resolved find out more, eventually.

Suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted... CHRUNCH! "I'm _not_ warning you again Thor, eat with your mouth closed.", an irritated Natasha admonished the so-called Demi-god. Shepard was still having a hard time believing _that_ one. The others chuckled as the sound of his chewing became almost non-existent.

Tony turned to Shepard, grinned, and said, "I gotta say, if you _really_ are from the future _and_ an alternate universe, shouldn't you have some extremely cool tech and weapons?... Not that I'm doubting you or anything... I mean, that blue-glowy-trick alone, is pretty awesome. "Yeah, what exactly was that anyway?", Natasha asked.

Shepard couldn't help but squirm slightly as all eyes around the table, except Steve, who had dozed off from shear fatigue a while ago, fell on her. It was like being trapped at a table full of Mordin's and Tali's.

"Well, the answer to your question, Tony, is actually really simple. It was all lost, damaged, or destroyed, before I arrived here. As matter of fact, all I seem to have left is this damaged armor.", she motioned at what remained of her scorched and ruined attire.

_And there's no way in hell I can tell you how I apparently got here in the fist place. I still don't believe it, so why would any of you?_, she thought to herself, as she continued, "And Natasha, explaining my abilities, well that's a little more complicated... First of all they're called Biotics..."

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks" A literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim.**

About forty-five minutes later Samantha had, more or less, explained the basics of biotic powers and the technology behind them, as well as the basic functions of her standard equipment, _and_ answered several questions, mostly from Tony and Bruce.

Near the end of their questions, the two of them had starting getting so specific and technical, Shepard had gotten exasperated, just giving up and telling them, "Listen! I'm just a dumb frggin' marine, okay! I just use the stuff, I didn't fucking build it!"

When they didn't immediately stop asking her question's, she activated her biotic's, pointed a glowing arm in their general direction, and told them, "Go ahead and ask me one more question about something which I have abso-fucking-lutely no idea about... Go ahead... I dare you!..."

Shortly after _that_ little out burst, Tony and Bruce both decided it would be a really good idea to stop asking questions for a while. The rest of the table, minus a _somehow _still sleeping Steve, wholeheartedly agreed with them.

A few minutes later, and a lot calmer, Shepard noticed a distinct change in the man, Clint Barton she recalled, who was sitting next to Natasha. Seated across the table from her, she could see a sudden urgency and fear in his eyes as he spoke, "I just realized... Hey, have any of your seen or heard from Coulson, since the battle?"

A deafening silence fell over the whole table. As a seasoned marine, one who was acquainted, far to often, with the loss fellow marines and friends, Shepard recognized it all too well.

Her fears proved to be correct when Natasha leaned over to him, looked in his worried blue eyes, and told him, "I'm sorry Clint... Phil's gone."

Clint slowly lowered his head, and then smashed both his fists down on the table, startling everyone in the restaurant, instantly jolting poor Steve awake, who then promptly banged his head on the table, before quickly recovering, "_Huh? What? _What's wrong guys?", he said, as he blinked a few times, trying to clear the sleep from his eyes_._

Clearly understanding now, and trying to save Steve the embarrassment, Shepard said, "I'm sorry to hear about your friend, I certainly know what it feels like to lose someone close to you."

Thor set down his food, and nodding in agreement said, "Tis' true Friend Barton. We are all saddened by his loss, but know this... he died fighting my vile brother, with _Honor." _

Shepard was only mildly surprised, after all everyone had a limit, when Clint started softly sobbing. Natasha put her hands on Clint's, now shaking, shoulders and quietly said, "Clint, you have to know, Phil... it wasn't you... it was Loki. It was ALL Loki."

Seeing that Clint was temporarily distracted, Tony leaned in close to Shepard, and whispered in her ear, " Shep, Loki was able to take control of anyone he touched with that spear of his, unfortunately Clint was one of them."

Glancing over at Tony, Shepard decided right then to never tell him about her close call with Loki. He had a giant ego and probably took everything, especially his failures, personally. So there was no point in alarming him about any danger he may have, inadvertently, placed her in.

But now Loki's comments, about having her kill for him and his _special plans _for her, made complete sense. He'd actually meant everything quite literally. Shepard mentally shuddered at the thought of being that Monster's play thing.

She was suddenly reminded of the horrors Dr. Gavin Archer had inflicted on his own brother, David. Of monsters like Dr. 'Hart'/Saleon, Cerberus, The Illusive Man in particular, and ultimately the Reapers. All these truly abhorrent things she had seen done in the quest for power over others. Some things never seemed to change, no matter where fate may have taken her.

Shepard's heart really reached out to Clint, she had already seen far to many people abused and tortured as he had been. "I was just thinking about some of the brave men and woman who died helping me fight, back home.", they all looked at Samantha expectantly, even Clint was now paying attention to her, who said, "Would you mind talking about any of them?... I mean, if it's not to rough for you.", as Natasha gave her a knowing look, and a subtle nod of thanks.

Shepard grinned and almost teared up as she remembered the fond memory, "Well I'll never forget this one crew-mate of mine, his name was Mordin, he was a Salarian, I'll get to that, and he always liked to sing..."

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks" A literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim.**

Another hour had past as Shepard finished her story with, "...And that's how Mordin, single-handedly, cured an entire race of people..." When she saw the dumbfounded looks on all their face's her continued, "And no, I'm not shitting you, hell I didn't even exaggerate much."

Tony just beamed at her, smiled and told her,"I only have one thing to say about your friend Shep, BEST SALARIAN SCIENTIST... EVER!" There were nods of agreement at his statement, as Shepard replied, "Your _damn right_ he was!"

The whole table burst out into laughter at her response, but suddenly, "Hey! Everybody quiet down, did you hear that?, Steve alerted them. Now that they had settled down Shepard could definitely hear something as well. It sounded like...,"Is that a little girl screaming?", Samantha was already on her feet and heading for the door, the Avengers two steps behind her.

Shepard readied her powers and... couldn't believe what she was seeing. A masked guy, wearing something..., Am I_ going crazy... or is he really wearing a blue and red costume with a spider on the front?,_ was carefully holding a yelling, laughing and very happy little girl in one arm, while swinging on some type of line and gently landing right outside the restaurant with the other.

"See ma'am! Told ya I'd find her for you, save and sound!", he said to the restaurant's owner, who came rushing towards her young daughter, tears in her eyes. "Diana! Oh thank you! Thank you so much!"

He then gently put Diana into her mother's outstreched arms, and the little child said, "Mommy can I go again! Can I!", He leaned a little closer to them, wagged his finger, and said, "Sorry little lady, only one ride to a customer."

As he was beginning to swing away into the air Shepard told him, "Hey kid! You did good!" He looked over his shoulder and only then did he seem to realize who his audience was. "You too guys! Great job!", and the nine of them all watched as he disappeared off into the night._  
_

A/N: Can you say Spidey Cameo? LOL Was I the only one watching The Avengers for the first time, and desperately hoping for a Peter/Spidey cameo? I mean, COME ON! It's a frakin' alien invasion in NYC, I doubt Pete would be just sitting on the sideline and watching the Avengers do all the work.


	7. Chapter 7

Quintessential Hero

Disclaimer: If I actually owned any of this... that would be so damn awesome! Sadly, I do not.

Summary:Post ME3, and starts during The Avengers movie. Thanks to a certain omnipotent being with a penchant for mind games, Samantha Shepard finds herself in a strange new world.

Author's Notes: 3,500+ Hits, Over 1,000 Readers. I'm stunned. Thank you to everyone who has read, favored and/or alerted my story! A special thank you to all my reviewers... you glorious Bosh'tet's!

Our seven hero's are about to have a drink, back at Tony's apartment... err, floor? Ah, screw it, their back at Tony's big ass tower.

Chapter 7

All seven of them were now sprawled out around Tony's half demolished living room. He had announced, when they returned from the restaurant, "Welcome back to my humble abode, now 100% breezier! Oh... and look, Bruce didn't smash my mahogany bar with his Loki chew toy. First round's on me guys!"

Samantha grabbed a stool at the bar along with Tony and Bruce. Clint and Natasha had taken over a couch and Thor, a La-Z-boy. Steve insisted on bar tending, telling them that he would get far more enjoyment out of serving up some drinks than actually partaking.

"Okay then Captain Teetotaler, tell ya what, surprise us!", Tony smirked, leaned over to Shepard and said, "Our dear blonde friend here, can't get drunk apparently. Something do to with that super soldier metabolism of his."

Samantha gave Steve a sympathetic look,"Ouch... that's gotta suck sometimes. I have a... _special _metabolism, when it comes to alcohol, myself. Takes forever to even get a good buzz on."

"Well, can't really complain ma'am...", _I really wish the kid would stop calling me that,_ Shepard thought, as he continued, "The process I originally went through could have had worse side effects than that, I guess."

After fumbling behind the bar for a couple minutes, mixing who-knows-what, Steve seemed to have their drinks ready. "First rounds ready go to guys!", He looked rather proud of his newest creation, as he set six small glasses of _unique_ looking drinks on top of the bar.

"It's... it's green...", A rather confused Samantha looked dubiously down at her 'drink'. As everyone retrieved their beverage, they all seemed to share her assessment of Steve's concoction.

Steve smiled at them saying,"And guaranteed to knock you on your butts! ...I think.", When no one, surprisingly not even Thor, could bring themselves to take the plunge first, Steve started to get upset. "Oh come on! Don't be a bunch of pansies!"

Shepard looked at each of her fellow drinkers, and said, "Okay... Everyone stay calm and we'll get out of this in one piece. There's only one fair way to deal with a situation like this. Everybody drinks, just throw that Mother back and swallow. Ready, on 1, 3... 2... 1..."

One eternity later, about 5 seconds, Steve finally asked, "So... um, how is it?"

Tony just grimaced and replied "Like there's a party in my mouth... and everyone just puked.", Shepard was doing her best to not make Tony's words a reality, and realized she was fighting a losing battle.

Clint and Natasha didn't seem to be fairing much better, what the him holding his stomach saying, "This isn't going to end well..." and Natasha with one hand up to her mouth, the other holding her hair up, "Oh god, here it comes..."

Thor, who was doubled-over, had a slightly worse reaction, "Odin's Beard! Friend Rogers, have I unknowingly wronged thee? ...Why hast thou poisoned me with such a demonic brew? Poor Steve just gaped back at him, horrified.

Bruce though, Bruce took the cake, as his reaction to Steve's little drink was a tad more, _extreme. _ "DAMN, THAT'S GOOD! Great job Steve!", he bellowed. Then he looked around, and saw that his friends were the ones looking a little bit green, "Oh... crap... ah what hell, I'll take another Steve."

"Steve please...", Shepard grunted, "If you hold my hair back... I _promise_ you... I'll kill you quickly." Figuring that was better than the alternative at least, Steve jumped from behind the bar, reaching Samantha as fast as super-humanly possible.

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks" A literary device used to show the passage of time, or in this case, not having to show an unholy amount of vomiting. We have dismissed that claim.**

She was walking through a burnt up forest. Oily shadows kept appearing and disappearing , just at the edge of her vision. Strange voices filled the air, some of whom Samantha recognized as friends which she had lost.

And then she saw him. He smiled and called out to her, "Come to me, Siha.", Shepard started running towards her lover... and was horrified when Loki suddenly appeared behind him. "Thane! Behind you!", she desperately tried to warn him.

But it was too little too late, as Loki smiled at her... and stabbed him in the back. The shining tip of his spear, covered in dark blood, now extended from the center of Thane's chest, who dropped to his knees. "NNNOOOOOO!"

Shepard jolted awake screaming, her entire body shaking. Samantha couldn't help noticing that she was, _again,_ being carried by Steve. A_h hell, not again, I'm never going to live this one down. But, I'm too damn beat to make it on my own steam anyway... so I might as well enjoy the ride. _The next thing she noticed was that a hand was soothingly brushing through her hair.

She looked over at the hand's owner, Bruce, who was walking next to Steve, as he softly said to her, "Hey, it's okay your safe. That must have been one hell of a nightmare you had. We're headed over to get medical help for everyone from some friends. You gave us a real scare there... Samantha."

Steve looking down at her for a moment, added, "Yeah, you were mumbling something in your sleep and you seemed pretty upset. Bruce's right by the way, we all got real worried when you passed out after..."

_Oh wow, he looks so damn guilty... and here we go with the damn blushing again... this guy is too much_, what Shepard said was, "Look kid, it's alright, everyone makes a mistake once in a while." Steve looked back up and continued walking, replying, "Yeah... I still feel like a world-class jerk though."

Shepard slowly looked around and saw that the others were with them as well. Natasha and Clint were helping each other down the sidewalk in front of Steve. Looking behind Steve, she saw a rather hilarious sight, Tony was supporting and walking along with, a still doubled-over Thor.

"Come on buddy, just a few more blocks, I promise. Then we're off to see the wizard... to get our stomachs pumped...", Tony glared at the back of Steve's head, as he said this last part to Thor. Thor just mumbled incoherently and continued to stumble along.

It turned out they were headed to a huge recently docked ship. It was so large that Shepard was able to make it out already, even though they were still blocks away from it's berth. The ship definitely looked like, in Shepard's mind at least, an ancient naval aircraft carrier.

Natasha had informed her it was a SHIELD vessel, and that it was temporarily stationed at Manhattan to serve as a make-shift hospital ship. The island needed any help it could get with the severe number of wounded from Loki's attack.

Shepard also learned that Loki was currently on-board said vessel. During the time she had been unconscious earlier in the day, Thor, Clint, and Steve had taken him there. The near-catatonic Demi-God was to be held there until they could send him, along with his brother, back home for judgment.

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks" A literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim.**

After weaving through damaged and blocked streets for what seemed like forever, they finally arrived at their destination. Shepard had to admit, she was an even more impressive ship close up, as they patiently followed a line of wounded civilians who were being helped aboard.

The flight deck had been turned into an outdoor triage center with some tents having been setup as examination areas. Anyone in bad enough condition was rushed to one of the O.R.'s, below decks, in the ship's Infirmary.

Shepard couldn't help but feel a little crushed at the sight of all the scared, tired, and wounded men, women, and children who now surrounded them. But then, she actually cracked a grin, when she heard some of the staff talking about this weird masked kid in a blue and red outfit who had volunteered to help. Right now he was swinging his away across the city with containers of badly needed units of O negative blood. Apparently, he was setting new records with his delivery times.

They waited a fairly long while to receive treatment, even telling the triage nurses that they'd be happy to wait longer when they checked on them from time to time. It had seemed an unspoken rule between all seven of them that they WOULDN'T take away any of the medical staff's time from anyone else, not until the most severe cases had already been taken care of anyway.

Eventually, two men with medical experience who had volunteered to help, well it _seemed_ more like one had dragged the other there with him, got a chance to see them. For some odd reason, Shepard instantly disliked one of them.

"I _still_ say Atlantic City would have been more fun.", the taller, unshaven one, who Shepard noticed, limped around with a cane, complained to his shorter, clean shaven, friend. The friend just sighed and told him, "Ho... _Holmes, _could you please stop being an ass for fifteen minutes? These people desperately need our help right now!" Holmes, _come on... that can't possibly be his real name, _Shepard thought, replied, "Sure thing... _Watson, _I call dibbs on red-head hottie number one, she's got bitchin' emerald-green eyes!"

The two of them did a fantastic job, of sewing, patching, pumping, and finally, diagnosing any other possible injuries the seven of them might have. But by the time they were finished Shepard was within an inch of not being able to stop herself from jamming Mr. Sarcastic's cane up his ass. _His friend seems to be such a nice guy, but this 'Holmes' is a complete asshole_!, Shepard fumed as the two men saw their next patients.

Suddenly, Samantha noticed that they were, one spangly uniform and kindhearted Dr., short of a full group. "Hey guys, anyone see where Bruce and Steve went?" Clint pointed out a small grouping of tents on the far end of the deck and said, "I'm saw them head over there a few minutes ago." Shepard nodded her thanks and started towards the tents, a curious Tony in tow.

As she walked over, Shepard saw a small card-board sign and read it, Children's Temporary Care and Counseling. Heading into one of the tents, the badass-marine-biotic saw one of _the_ most heartwarming things she had ever seen in her, violence and hate filled, life.

Steve, Bruce, and a small group of children were all huddled together in what looked to be a make-shift library. Steve was reading to them, while Bruce helped him act out the story. Shepard just watched from the door for a few minutes, and grinned when she recognized the tale they were weaving for the kids. The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, a personal favorite of Samantha's, and just a bit ironic in Steve's and her own case.

Tony had been surprisingly quiet as they both took the endearing scene in, but that only lasted until Director Fury had appeared behind them and peaked in the door as well. "Looks like those two really know how to handle kids.", he quietly said to them, and then, of course, Tony had to ruin the whole moment.

He shoved Fury into the tent and shouted, "LOOK KIDS! A real-life pirate! It's Cap'n Fury!", Shepard don't know much about Fury, the one thing she did know was how much righteous indignation had been in his one good, unpatched, eye when he looked back at Tony, and then the stark fear that replaced it, as the group of children all rushed over, from a laughing Bruce and Steve, to talk to the 'pirate'.

A/N: I was going to have them play 'I never ever'... but I'm sure that's just this, now... "I never ever, am going to let Steve make me drink again... ever." Being a Tali man myself, this has been a little odd to write, but Thane just seemed like the perfect choice for Samantha's L.I. At least she knows he's gone and would feel less guilty if she developed feelings for anyone else. Oh... and those two guyshelping out on board the Helicarrier, they _TOTALLY_ aren't who you think they were... Just remember one thing though... Everybody Lies.


	8. Chapter 8

Quintessential Hero

Disclaimer: If I actually owned any of this... that would be so damn awesome! Sadly, I do not.

Summary:Post ME3, and starts during The Avengers movie. Thanks to a certain omnipotent being with a penchant for mind games, Samantha Shepard finds herself in a strange new world.

Author's Notes: The hits just keep on coming! Over 1,300 Readers!. I'm still shocked everyone noticed this so quickly! Thank you to everyone who has read, favored and/or alerted my story! A special thank you to all my reviewers... you glorious Bosh'tet's!

Oh and I've decided that Samantha Shepard should have her own theme, Shot In The Dark by Within Temptation. If you've never heard it before, go on over to you tube and check it out!

Chapter 8

Before you read chapter 8, let me tell you something incredible. A Mass Effect fan film is being made... With the voice of Commander Shepard himself, Mark Meer, starring in it! It's called Red Sand and you can find the teaser, trailer, and everything else about it here: redsand (dot) uat (dot) edu I'm not joking, go to the site. Now. I'll be waiting patiently for you to come back and read chapter 8. Seriously. Go. There. NOW!

Archer83: So what do you think of this Samantha?

Samantha Shepard: Huh... I think they should have cast Jennifer Hale instead.

Archer83: Jealous, much?

Chapter 8 (Really this time.)

As a groggy Shepard opened her eyes, she was momentarily blinded by the bright lights above her, and for the first time since waking up in the Cerberus lab, felt true fear. She was strapped down on some type of operating table and her armor had been removed. Through the glare she could barely make out the forms of several people, and realized two of them were talking.

"Councilman, we should be ready to scan the subject shortly. We already have technicians examining the armor she was wearing. Initial findings on it's construction and the damaged equipment built into it are very promising." The taller, and older of the two replied, "Excellent... keep me posted on your progress."

_What the fuck is going on? How the hell did I get here? The last thing I remember was taking a walk on that hospital ship!_ Her mind raced as she thought of any way to try and escape the hell these people had trapped her in.

Trying to use the element of surprise, Samantha concentrated on activating her biotics. But only a split second later, another person in the room noticed she was awake and shouted, "The subject has regained consciousness! Sedate her immediately!"

Samantha's body flared briefly blue, and then back to normal, as a mask was placed over her nose and mouth, and she was forced to once again give up her consciousness. As she faded away, her last thought was, _Damn it..._ _it__ would have been nice to see Bruce... one more time._

**Ah yes "Page Breaks" A literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim.**

Tony was starting to get slightly concerned, when he realized Shepard hadn't come back in over a half hour. _I'm probably just being stupidly paranoid, _he thought to himself.

Samantha had promised him that she would be back in fifteen minutes or so, and that she was just going for a walk, needing few minutes to think by herself. He'd just said, "Sure, just grab me or one of the guys later.", and waved her off as she walked away. And then, he had had an interesting conversation with one very miffed Nick Fury.

Now though, the hair standing up on the back of his neck, he found himself getting more worried by the second. "Excuse me, Nick.", he said, as he padded, a mildly calmer, Director Fury on the shoulder and quickly jogged back over to the tent that Steve and Bruce were still in.

"Hey guys, we need to talk, now!", Tony, franticly, waved from the doorway to get their attention. Steve looked over at Tony, and smiling at them, said to his captive audience, "Sorry kids, duty calls!", which was followed with a collective, " AAAWWWEEE, don't stop!", from the whole group of children. Bruce added. "Yeah sorry guys, but we gotta be going."

As they both walked outside the tent, Steve instantly said, "Whats wrong Tony." "Have... have either of you seen Shep in the last thirty-some minutes?", a slightly worried looking Tony, replied. This instantly caught Bruce's attention.

"Tony! You idiot! You let a wounded woman, who apparently isn't even from this _damn _universe, walk away by herself on a crowded ship?", Tony just glowered at Bruce and said, "Not my brightest idea, I get it!".

Steve stepped in between them and firmly said, "ENOUGH! Settle down, both of you! Just calm down, don't worry, someone has to have seen her." "Lets go find Clint, Natasha, and Thor, maybe she's with them.", a still fuming Bruce said, as he glared at Tony, and walked away.

Steve watched Bruce walk off, and then looked back at Tony. "Listen this isn't all your fault Tony, I messed up too. We probably wouldn't have been in this dumb situation if it weren't for me. Let's just find her as quickly as we can."

Tony looked up at him and replied, "It's still my screw up Cap, but your right, lets get going." And then the two of them ran over to Bruce, who had already found the others.

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks" A literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim.**

No one had seen Shepard after she walked away with Tony to check on Steve and Bruce. They had next gone to Fury, who put out a ship-wide alert for her, and still no one found her. By this point, all of them knew something must be wrong, and Bruce was definitely taking it the hardest. He looked down right terrified, as he started shaking in fear.

His five friends protectively gathered around him, Tony and Steve looking despondent. Feeling as though they had also failed Shepard, and Bruce as well, Natasha, Clint, and even Thor tried to comfort him. "I give thee my word Friend Banner, we _will _find the Lady-Commander... and return her safely to you." Bruce suddenly looked up at them, "Wait what? Why would you-"

Natasha cut him off before he could finish, "Come on Bruce, you know you can't lie to us. We've all seen how you look at her when you think she, or anyone else, isn't looking." Bruce was shocked, as he sputtered, "But I haven't even known her a whole _day_ yet!"

Clint snorted and replied, "Since when does that matter? And guess what Dr. Banner, I think she likes you too.", Natasha elbowed Clint directly in his sore ribs, and he quickly realized his horrible mistake of probably making Bruce feel even worse than he already did, and quietly said, "I'm sorry, buddy."

It was at that moment, the two men who had treated all of them earlier, now wearing leather jackets and holding motorcycle helmets, walked up to the group. "Hey, if it isn't red-headed hottie number two!", _Holmes _said, as he leered at Natasha.

His friend, _Watson, _didn't seem to be in a joking mood as he yelled, "House!... I mean, _Holmes _could you do me a giant fucking favor and shut up for a minute!" House/_Holmes _proceeded to actually shut up for a minute, as his friend turned to them and continued, "Thank God we found you! Listen, that friend of yours that's missing, I think we saw what happened to her.

_Watson, _then told them how he and his, annoying, friend had seen a man in a SHIELD uniform bump onto Shepard and seemingly apologize to her. But only seconds later, she seemed to get dizzy and then collapsed to the deck.

Suddenly, two more uniformed men had shown up with a gurney, and placed her on it. The odd thing, they said, was that the three men then immediately took her off the ship and, disturbingly, not into a waiting ambulance but a black van, a Ford E-350, they were fairly sure.

_House/Holmes _then handed Tony a slip of paper, _"Here,_ take this, I thought it all seemed really creepy, so I wrote down the make, model, color, and license plate number. As they both turned and started walking away, House/_Holmes_ turned around and called out to the six of them, "I hope you all find your friend!", His friend _Watson, _turned as well saying, "Good luck!"

Then the Avengers, minus one friend, watched as these two, really odd, friends disembarked from the ship, proceeded to a pair of motorcycles, and rode off in the early morning light.

"I've gotta get this to Fury.", Tony said to them, and then he ran off towards the Helicarrier's Command deck. Bruce sat, pale and despondent, surrounded by Clint, Natasha, Steve, and Thor, who had never felt more useless in their lives. As they all watched the sunrise, the only sound around them on that flight deck, that mattered, was the soft sobbing of Dr. Bruce Banner.

A/N: Well... shit just got real... didn't it? Now you know why I put Drama first in the description of this story. Something tells me 'Powers Boothe', (The character has no actual name on the cast list.) and his cronies are going to have holy hell to pay when the Avengers catch up with them. And that's before Bruce Hulks-out on their weaselly asses. Now our daring hero's have a rescue to accomplish, partly thanks to one Dr. Gregory House (deceased) and one Dr. James Wilson. I guess they earned that trip to Atlantic City after all huh? Lastly, I hope you enjoyed Shepard's theme music, as well as the teaser and trailer for that new bad ass looking Mass Effect fan film. Until next time, and please leave a review if you wouldn't mind!


	9. Chapter 9

Quintessential Hero

Disclaimer: If I actually owned any of this... that would be so damn awesome! Sadly, I do not own any of these great characters.

Summary:Post ME3, and starts during The Avengers movie. Thanks to a certain omnipotent being with a penchant for mind games, Samantha Shepard finds herself in a strange new world.

Author's Notes: The hits just keep on coming! Now over 1,600 Readers in 44 Countries! I'm starting to think you guys really like this story... Thank you to everyone who has read, favored and/or alerted my story! A special thank you to all my reviewers... you glorious Bosh'tet's!

Revenge. Revenge is a dish that is best served... smashed into a pulp.

Chapter 9

Nick Fury currently had a million and one problems right now. The most annoying of these problems had just walked into the Command Center and was in his face, demanding his undivided attention. He tried his best to ignore said walking problem, or at least keep himself from knocking said walking problem the fuck out.

"Damn it! Fine, if I say am sorry for exposing your obvious fear of small children, would you fucking listen to me!", An irate Tony Stark practically shouted at him.

Nick just sighed and replied, "Stark...", and then what Tony had actually said, hit him full force. _Wait... did Stark just, sort of... apologize to me, he never apologizes to me. _This instantly set Fury on edge, Tony definitely did have his undivided attention now.

Fury looked at Tony, and dreading the answer asked, "Okay, Stark...what is it?" Tony lowered his eyes and quietly replied, "I... we... need your help Nick, please." This started setting off all sorts of alarm bells in Fury's head, now Tony was being _nice _to him as well, practically begging for help.

Tony handed him a scrap of paper and said, "Samantha Shepard, the woman who helped us out yesterday, and _kinda_ saved my ass? Well, we are absolutely positive that some really bad people kidnapped her right off this ship, and then drove off in a black van. Here's a complete description of the vehicle that these two civilian guys wrote down. Apparently they saw the whole thing go down and immediately came to find us. And one more thing, they said the three guys who took her were wearing uniforms... SHIELD uniforms."

Quickly taking all this information in, Nick quickly called over Deputy Director Hill, handed her the slip of paper and told her, "I want this van tracked down. Immediately. And send out a Department-wide alert, there are currently criminals posing as SHIELD agents... we may even have a rogue cell on our hands..."

Hill just nodded an crisply said, "Yes Sir! Just give me one minute.", as she briskly walked over to one of the other stations in the room. It almost bothered Fury, how grateful Tony looked, as he glanced over his shoulder at Hill.

Less than a minute later, Hill walked back up to them and said, "Sir, we've managed to locate the van, it apparently headed to a heliport a little under a mile from here."

Before Fury or Tony could even ask the next obvious question, she added, "Only one helicopter has been seen leaving that area in the last hour. Our low-level scanning radar picked it up heading out into the Atlantic."

"Hill, can you give us a probable destination?", Tony asked her. Bringing up satellite imaging of the surrounding area at a near-by console, Hill replied, "Looks like she headed out toward a bulk cargo ship, the Hale'meer."

Tony looked back over to Nick and said,"Fury, two things, right now. Get me back to Stark... to the Avenger's Tower ASAP, we'll be borrowing some of your equipment and a Quinjet. Nick hadn't quite ever seen this much determination in Stark's eyes. The only time that was even close was when he had learned about Phil Coulson's death.

"Absolutely not Stark...", Nick replied, and before Tony could unleash his unholy rage, added, "Your getting two Quinjets, one filled with a squad lead by myself. These asshole's took this woman, Shepard, who was under _my_ protection, off _my _damn ship. I'm going to personally make those motherfuckers _bleed. _Tony,get your people together, and ready to fight.

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks" A literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim.**

Clint was sitting at the controls of the Quinjet, looking out the cockpit window toward his wing-man, when Tony streaked in between the two aircraft, and started flying in formation with them.

His Mark VII armor still looked beat to hell on the surface, but apparently JARVIS had pulled off yet another miracle for him, and gotten the suit fully functional in the time since they had initially left his apartment and headed to the Helicarrier.

Clint couldn't help worrying about Shepard, as he glanced over his shoulder to check on a, now calmer but still very quiet, Bruce. Natasha was leaning against him, both belted on their seats, and still murmuring from time to time, not to worry, and that they would rescue Samantha soon. Any other time he would have been jealous of Bruce, but not today.

_Why do I always end up caring about people? I should know better than that, to not let myself get attached to anyone, by now. I was cold to and suspicious of, this Shepard, at best, and what does she do? I friggin' end up crying in a front of a practical stranger, and she not only makes me feel a little bit better, but I actually ended up laughing a few times and the hurt didn't seem quite as bad. Fuck it! Some people are just worth caring about, _Clint thought to himself.

Steve was next to him in the co-pilot's seat looking as if he was mentally readying himself for the coming battle. Seated across from Natasha and Bruce, Thor was brooding and staring at the floor, just waiting until he could unleash his pent up rage on the enemy.

Suddenly Director Fury's voice came over the radio, ordering, "Red Leader to Red Two and Three we are five klicks out, approaching target in one minute. Everybody pucker up, and watch your asses, we have no intel on enemy strength or firepower."

"Understood Red Leader, weapons armed, proceeding to target", Clint replied. Over the radio he could hear Tony's response, "This is Red Three, I'm scouting ahead to see if I can get a look at whatever hardware these boys have." Tony accelerated past them, streaking towards the fast approaching ship.

As they neared the large ship, it's deck packed with shipping containers, hidden weapons emplacements quickly started reveling themselves and laser painting Tony and the two Quinjets. "These guys aren't fucking around Red Leader! Tony, get ready for incoming!", Clint shouted into his radio mic.

Along with the ringing tone warning him of a locked weapons platform, Clint also heard a radio transmission, "This is World Security Councilman Bowers to incoming SHIELD forces, I'm ordering you to leave this area _immediately. _Leave now, or you will be fired upon. I repeat, leave immediately, or we _will_ destroy you. This is your last warning."

Before anyone else had a chance to reply, Tony said, "With all due respect Councilman Asswipe, you can take that warning and shove it up your weaselly political ass!"

Fury was the next to speak, "Well... I was going to tell you that you and your forces are under arrest Councilman Bowers, but I'm going to agree with my colleague, Mr. Stark. You can shove your threats up your pasty white ass."

Instantly, the sky was full of metal death as anti-air missiles launched from the ship. Tony began destroying them as fast as possible and the frontal Gatling guns of the two Quinjets claimed their fair share as well.

Fury ordered, "All forces take out those anti-air batteries!" In the next next minute the ships defenses were utterly decimated, along with a few of it's more stupidly aggressive human defenders, by combined ordinance from the aircraft as well as from Tony, along with blasts from his Repulsors.

Finally, Fury's voice gave the order everyone was itching for,"Okay, this is it... all forces prepare for boarding action!"

As the Quinjets started descending toward the tops of the cargo containers, Natasha got up and preceded to lower the rear hatch with Steve, Thor, and a now determined looking Bruce, lining up to exit as quickly as possible.

As they landed Bruce said, "I suggest everyone should just say the hell away from me for the next few minutes..." The personnel exiting both aircraft didn't need to be told twice, as Bruce was already starting to look a lot greener and meaner.

Tony hovered over him for a moment saying, "Time to see you swagger, big fella.", and then he flew off looking for the nearest enemy.

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks" A literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim.**

Shepard was jolted awake by the sounds of near-by gunfire, and then an ungodly loud roar. In the hall outside her locked room, Samantha could hear panicked shouting about enemy boarders. She was now wearing a hospital gown at least, and was still strapped down, but now to a small bed which was bolted to the floor.

She couldn't help grinning as she thought, _well_, _I'll be damned! I guess that's the cavalry... They actually came for me. But if I stay here, that jackass Councilman is going to send someone to get rid of the evidence sooner or later. _

Samantha rapidly went down the list of options in her mind, and quickly picking one, grimaced. _Well, this is gonna suck. _She remembered back to the few times the Asari Justicar, Samara, had offered to instruct her on increasing her biotic abilities.

One lesson in particular, came back to her now. "Shepard, it is just as important to change your way of thinking, when using your abilities." And then, Samara had levitated herself two feet off the floor in front of Shepard, eyes closed and peaceful, for five hours straight.

Samantha closed her eyes, body flaring bright blue, and began to concentrate, the mantra Samara had taught her came to her lips, "I am a leaf on the wind... I am a leaf on the wind... I am a leaf on the wind." The bed started creaking and as the bolts connecting it to the floor loudly snapped.

When she opened her eyes in ceiling was only an inch from her face. _Here goes nothing! _A split-second later, Shepard Slammed the bed down against the deck with all the energy she could muster. It instantly broke apart, her Barrier and the thin mattress protecting her from most of the impact.

Just as she got loose, two armed men burst into the room, and raised their assault rifles at her. Samantha shouted, "Down you go, motherfuckers!", picking both of them up and Slamming them down into the deck as well, with a sickening, CRUNCH.

Next she quickly began grabbing clothing, armor, and weapons off both of them. Grinning to herself, she marked a huge 'N7' on the front of the enemies armor, with a marker she had found. _No point in getting shot at by the good guys._ _Time to get the hell out of here_, she thought, as she exited cautiously, rifle up and ready.

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks" A literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim.**

Gently picking up a damaged piece of Shepard's armor, Steve frowned. _Oh God, what were they doing to her here, _Steve thought, as he, Clint, and Natasha cleared the medical bay of any hostiles. He quickly went over their tactical situation in his mind.

Thor was covering the top deck, watching their backs. Tony was still providing air support and disabling any vehicles which tried to escape from the ship. 'The Other Guy', as Bruce always called him, was obviously raising hell all over the ship, judging by the shouting and explosions he kept hearing. Fury and his squad had split up to take the Engineering section and the Bridge.

Suddenly, a quiet noise caught his attention, and he dragged a cowering doctor out of a near-by medical closet. "Oh Christ! Please don't kill me!", he whimpered, and stammering he continued, "I... I swear... they made me do it! I was... I was only following... Councilman Bowers' orders!"

Something snapped in Steve as he grabbed the man by the throat and slammed him up against the nearest wall. Then, shouting at him, he said, "Listen carefully, you scum, do you know how many men I've killed who were _ONLY FOLLOWING ORDERS_!"

A loud whistle instantly got his attention, "Hey Captain Subtle, I think you can drop that piece of shit, I seriously doubt he's worth it." Steve, Clint, and Natasha wheeled on the speaker, Shield and weapons up, only to stand slack-jawed in shock, a second later.

There was Shepard, armed and armored, with a rather beat up looking Councilman Bowers, his hands on his head, in front of her. "Are you all FUCKING insane! Don't just stand there! Arrest this bitch, NOW!, the Councilman yelled at them.

As the three of them just crossed their arms and glowered at the good Councilman, Samantha walked in front of him, turned to face him, and slammed her knee into his crotch so hard, that Steve and Clint winced, as they could almost feel it from five feet away.

Watching as Bowers collapsed and started to puke his guts out, Natasha said, "I couldn't have put it better myself, Shepard.", As Steve walked up to Samantha, asking her "Are you alright ma'am? They didn't hurt you did they? I'd just like to say that we're all so sorry for-"

Samantha cut him off before he could continue rambling, "Whoa kid, calm down, I don't seem to have any permanent damage... And could you _please_ fucking stop with all the blushing and calling me ma'am every five damn minutes?"

Steve, unfortunately blushed, even harder than he already was, as Clint and Natasha burst out into fits of laughter behind him and he replied to her, "Yes ma'am... uh I mean, sure thing Shepard."

A/N: Councilman Bowers, good name right, I figured we needed one for him, Powers Boothe played the character so I thought Bowers. :) Also did you catch the ship's name, the Hale'meer, huh wonder how I came up with that one... LOL. Lastly Shepard's mantra... sorry Joker, your my second favorite sarcastic space pilot, after Wash from Firefly/Serenity! Just remember folks, if you don't review... *holds up an adorable little fluffy bunny* ...The bunny gets to be in a nice stew. So unless your hungry for bunny stew... Review! :)


	10. Chapter 10

Quintessential Hero

Disclaimer: If I actually owned any of this... that would be so damn awesome! Sadly, I do not own any of these great characters.

Summary:Post ME3, and starts during The Avengers movie. Thanks to a certain omnipotent being with a penchant for mind games, Samantha Shepard finds herself in a strange new world.

Author's Notes: Wow. Over 1,950 readers. Just... wow. I hope you are all as addicted to reading this as I am to writing it! Thank you to everyone who has read, favored and/or alerted my story! A special thank you to all my reviewers... you glorious Bosh'tet's!

Archer83: *who is currently hanging in mid-air* Please Sam... tell him to let me down! I didn't REALLY mean it!

Samantha: *who is currently petting a certain adorable little fluffy bunny... that apparently is now named Grunt* Didn't mean what Archer? That you were going to take my little fluffy-Duffy Grunt an turn him into stew?

Archer83: Yes! That! Now could you please tell him to let me down?

'That Other Guy': *who is currently pissed off at the author* HULK LIKES LITTLE BUNNY! YOU NOT HURT LITTLE BUNNY!

Archer83: ... Oh Shit. Ah... yeah... your absolutely right, big guy! Enjoy chapter 10 guys, I might not be around long enough to write 11.

I hope my U.S. Readers all had a great Memorial Day weekend! To all my readers, let us never forget those that are currently serving, those that have served, and those that have made the ultimate sacrifice for, our countries.

Chapter 10

Tony was working on a console, alone, in the Hale'meer's medical bay. Now that the ship had finally been secured, he wanted first dibs on any tech they had taken from Shepard. "This... could be useful.", he muttered to himself, as he looked through the information that had been gathered on her.

Part of him might have felt a tinge of guilt, using medical and technical information forcibly taken from her. A much larger part of him, was far more concerned with grabbing everything he could get his hands on. Preferably, before SHIELD could confiscate Shepard's armor and the files he was currently reading.

Stark was stunned at the level of tech being analyzed. He suddenly thought back to his and Bruce's earlier Q and A session with Shepard. _Amazing... Shep wasn't kidding when she told me the technology from her reality uses mass altering fields as it's basis. _

_Not to mention, the most advanced nano-robtics I've ever seen. _It seemed that trace amounts of the medical and general use types of these nanobots had been recovered. _Wait a second... That's gotta be the medi-gel and omni-gel Shep told me about._

Lastly, Tony was able to gleam that a partially damaged, but incredibly advanced portable Computer/Assembly device was also being studied. _Bingo! Omni-tool! _During his conversation with Shepard,Tony had almost drooled over the applications this one device could have.

Tony quietly gathered all the materials, and then proceeded to permanently delete all of the files the 'researchers', that was putting it politely, had collected. As he left the bay, he grinned, his mind already going at light speed, coming up with ways to take advantage of this wondrous new tech.

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks" A literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim. **

Samantha was with the rest of their merry little band on the cargo deck, when Tony showed up next to her. They were all dealing with a big problem. Bruce/Hulk had found himself a new play toy, whom everyone was trying to keep form getting turned into a mushy pulp. "HULK SMASH!"

"Hey! Big-Green-Guy! Put the Jackass Councilman down! NOW.", Shepard breathed a slight sigh of relief when Bruce's alter-ego, and poster-boy for anger non-management, put Bowers down on the deck. Well it was actually more like he dropped him from four feet straight onto his face.

She leaned over to Steve, who was standing to her left, and whispered, "Please tell me he'll change back soon." Steve just stared up at the huge mound of green muscle replying, "Should only be a few more minutes... hopefully. I gotta admit, even like this, he does seem calmer when your around ma'-" Shepard cut him off with a raised eyebrow, "Oops, sorry Samantha, I can call you Samantha, right? Please don't go all glowy on me..."

Suddenly Samantha heard cheering from her right,"Shep, do it... do it... do it, you know you want to...! Slap his ass with a... what did you call that one move? A Singularity! Steve, I'm sure you wouldn't mind volunteering, right?" The next thing he knew, one particularly snarky Tony Stark, was floating in mid-air, unable to so much as twitch a finger.

"Want me to try it out on you Tony? ...Oh right, you can't talk can you?" After a few seconds, a now very quiet Tony was gently lowered to the deck. Shepard just smirked and said, "Hope you enjoyed the demo Tony, I can always use more practice with my abilities."

When she grinned, glancing back at the others, and saw that Steve, Clint, Natasha, and even Thor, were giving her weary looks, she frowned and said, "What? Oh come on, don't look at me like that guys. FINE! I promise that I'll never use my powers on any of you again, okay? ...Not unless I'm really, really, bored... that was a joke."

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks" A Literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim.**

**One Week Later...**

Samantha had been stunned when Tony had offered, actually almost demanded, that she along with the others, stay at what now was called the Avengers Tower. _I guess saving a Genius-Billionaire-Playboy-Philanthropist's life has it's perks, _she mused to herself.

Since then, Thor had returned home to Asgard with his scumbag of a bother and promised to return when he was able to. Shepard couldn't say that she'd be missing Loki any time soon, but she had grown to like Thor fairly quickly, and found herself hoping he'd keep his promise.

Shepard also certainly hadn't missed the fact that Natasha and Clint, had gotten rooms right next to each other on the same floor. _I knew there was something going on between those two! They should just cut the games and stay in the same quarters. As if their actually fooling anyone now..._

Tony had offered everyone their own individual _floor_ for privacy, but after living on small ships ever since joining the Alliance, Samantha thought that would feel rather lonely, to say the least. So, she had asked Steve and Bruce if they wouldn't mind sharing living quarters on the same floor. They had readily agreed, both of them thinking the same thing as Shepard about having to live on an entire floor alone.

Samantha had barely seen Tony himself in the last seven days. Apparently he had been cooped up in his own private lab, occasionally getting Bruce to assist him now and then. _I wonder what the heck the guy is up too. He should really learn to take a break once in a while._

Which is what she and Steve were doing right now. Looking over Tony's vast collection of games, movies, and television shows in his entertainment archive they had asked Natasha for her opinion. After swearing them to secrecy, she had an image to maintain after all, Natasha had selected what she called "One of the best games ever made."

She quickly started it up for them, grabbed one of Tony's multitude of controllers and then handed it to Steve who passed it like a hot potato to Shepard. "I'm sure you'll get the hang of it quickly Shepard, me, not so much, I'm still trying to master this thing called Pong that Clint showed me."

Natasha smirked at Steve's apparent lack of gaming skills and said, "Have fun guys, Clint and I are going out for a while, just ask JARVIS if you need anything." As she turned and walked away she threw one last comment over her shoulder at them, "Shepard, be sure to let Steve make all the hard decisions!"

"Why do I suddenly feel nervous?", Steve said, as he looked over at Shepard. She just grinned at him and replied, "It's only a game! Just relax Steve. ...Now let's see... okay, press Start. Easy enough." Then the two of them watched as the title scrolled on the screen, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks" A literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim.**

Many hours later, Natasha had returned with Clint, only to find Steve and Samantha still planted on the couch playing the same game.

It seemed like they had taken her advice, with Shepard using the controller and Steve deciding the next course of action or which character dialogue to choose. She overheard one odd comment from Steve though, "I swear, Bastila sounds exactly like you Samantha, only with an accent."

Even Tony and Bruce had finally taken a break from their research and inventing to get some caffeine and food. They were currently chatting with each other at the kitchen table. Suddenly everyone jumped, including Samantha, when Steve shouted the following at the screen, "NO! That's not true! That's impossible! I can't be the bad guy! I did everything right!"

"Wow... I didn't see that one coming either Steve. I kinda feel like an ass not picking up on all those hints they gave you throughout the story.", a glum Samantha told him. Natasha walked over and looking at Steve, in a dark tone said, "Well, what are you going to do now... Dark Lord Revan?"

A frazzled Steve replied, "Don't call me that Natasha! This game is just so cruel..." Shepard instantly realized the point the game developer / story teller, was making, "Steve you can make this character be whoever you want them to be now, no matter who they once were."

Natasha added, "Exactly Steve... or you may end up killing most of the characters who have come to trust you ... no pressure." Steve just sneered a her and told Shepard, "Your absolutely right Samantha, lets finish this story." Shepard smirked and said, "You got it Revan... oops, sorry Steve!"

A/N: Oh no... Did I just give away the big twist in Bioware's, arguably, best game ever made. Yup I did. I hope I didn't ruin it for anyone. :p I'm probably not the only guy who thinks Jennifer Hale could read from the local phone book and still sound incredibly sexy. Even as the arrogant and snooty Bastila, I could listen to her complain all day long.


	11. Chapter 11

Quintessential Hero

Disclaimer: If I actually owned any of this... that would be so damn awesome! Sadly, I do not own any of these great characters.

Summary:Post ME3, and starts during The Avengers movie. Thanks to a certain omnipotent being with a penchant for mind games, Samantha Shepard finds herself in a strange new world.

Author's Notes: Over 2,200 readers... I think I can now call this little fanfic... somewhat liked. :) Thank you to everyone who has read, favored and/or alerted my story! A special thank you to all my reviewers... you glorious Bosh'tet's!

Everyone in the Avenger's Tower was just trying to get some sleep... or relax in their own ways. Of course, that isn't doing to happen tonight...

Chapter 11

Bruce couldn't sleep. _I should really just give in and take a pill for this damn insomnia, _he thought.

As he headed for the elevator to grab a bite to eat from the above Kitchen/Dining/Recreation floor, he stopped in his tracks.

_What was that noise? _A loud commotion could be heard coming from Shepard's private rooms just down all hall from him.

She had warned both himself and Steve, that she was a light sleeper, and that she also occasionally had bad dreams. This however, seemed far worse than any disturbance Bruce or Steve had noticed in the last week.

Bruce instantly started walking back down the hall and noticed Steve heading towards him from the opposite direction. Steve just nodded to him as they both reached Samantha's door.

"Hey Bruce. I'm guessing you heard this racket too?" A worried Bruce replied, "Yeah Steve, you think we should check on her? I mean, it can't hurt to play it safe, right?"

Both of them knocked on Shepard's door, getting louder as she didn't respond. When they called her name several times, still not getting a response, Steve started to get worried as well.

Steve, looking at Bruce with a concerned frown, and said, "Hear, just in case, let me open the door. If I have to break the lock and this turns out to be no big deal, I can take the blame." Steve went to open it, and surprisingly, the door was unlocked.

He then gave Bruce a gentle slap on the shoulder, telling him, "Your up, Mr. Hero." Bruce just gave Steve an annoyed look in return, and then proceeded into the small living area which had a separate bedroom. He quickly went to the bedroom door, and not wanting to waste anymore time, opened it.

"STEVE! We might need some help!" Bruce shouted, as he looked at a now tossing and turning Samantha, who was obviously having a horrible nightmare, and glowing a very familiar shade of blue.

A couple small lamps in the room had been smashed, and some light furniture thrown about. _Well, I guess that explains the noise, _Bruce thought, as Steve came running into the room. "Wait! Steve... stay back for a second. Let me try to wake her up... and see if I can calm her down."

He began to cautiously approach Samantha, almost shaking at the power on display in front of him. _So this is what people must feel like around 'The Other Guy'_, he quickly pondered.

When Bruce had reached her, he started to gently brush her hair with his right hand, and lightly held her with his left, murmuring to her, "Shh... Your safe Samantha, you just need to wake up."

Steve couldn't stop himself from feeling helpless as he watched as his friend patiently tried to wake Shepard, who in this state, was probably very dangerous.

As Shepard snapped awake, out of fear and confusion, she reacted on instinct. The next thing he knew, Bruce's back was slamming into a wall. Instantly, he could feel 'The Other Guy' beginning to take over, as a horrified looking Samantha, and a concerned Steve ran over to him.

Even as the pain of the transformation began to take over, Bruce thought,_ Huh... that's odd she seems so upset... wait... is she actually crying? Holy shit... she does like me! Wow... I guess I owe Steve ten bucks after all. _Then, he grabbed Steve's wrist and shouted at him, "GET HER... OUT OF HERE... NOW!"

Steve just nodded to his friend, and pulled Samantha, kicking and screaming, away from Bruce. "Look at him Shepard! We have to move now!" For the first time, Samantha had a second to fully take the situation in and realized that Steve was absolutely right.

As she heard the rage-filled screams coming from her room Samantha whispered, "I'm so sorry Bruce...". Then, both of them started running for their lives.

Samantha for the life of her, couldn't figure out why Steve was suddenly grinning at her as they ran. "What's so goddamn funny kid?", she snapped at him. "Nothing!", he replied. What she didn't know, was that Steve was now holding a crumpled up ten dollar bill in his hand.

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks" A literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim. **

This was it. After all the time they had denied to everyone, even themselves, how they felt about each other, Clint and Natasha had finally given in.

_God, why didn't I do this sooner, _Natasha berated herself as she gently kissed Clint, mesmerized by his eyes, which looked like two deep blue passion-filled oceans.

Clint passionately met her kiss, and then stared longingly into her light-green eyes. His thoughts were much the same as hers in that moment, so much wasted time they could have shared together.

As he gently, but firmly, caressed her body and pulled her toward him, Natasha suddenly tensed up. "Clint... did you hear that?", she said.

Unfortunately for him, Clint did indeed hear something coming form the floor above them. An ominously loud creaking sound, that was continually getting louder by the second.

Less than two seconds later they were greeted by the extremely odd site of Shepard, Steve and Bruce, in Hulk form, siting in a daze, on the bedroom carpet in front of them.

As the dust cleared and everyone was finally able to see each other, a beet-red faced Steve just looked over at Shepard and handed her a crumpled up ten dollar bill. She grinned at him saying, "Ha! I told ya they were crazy about each other, kid!"

Then Shepard addressed the two stunned, and naked, SHIELD agents, as Steve was to embarrassed to speak, and said, "Uh... um... sorry about the _coitus interruptus,_ you two!"

As if this wasn't bad enough, just then everyone in the room heard a loud, "HULK SMASH!", As Bruce's alter-ego proceeded to slam his fists down hard enough to break though yet another floor, sending Samantha and Steve crashing after him.

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks" A literary device used to show the passage of time, or cut to another hilarious scene. We have dismissed that claim.**

_Yes! Got it, finally!,_ Tony was rather impressed with himself, as he had just been able to reconstruct and decode most of the information that was on Shepard's omni-tool.

Besides this small miracle, he had JARVIS working on slowly replicating more omni and medi-gel as well. _Only took more than a goddamn week!, _Tony internally fumed, _Wait... what the hell... is that noise._

JARVIS chose that moment to pipe in with,"Sir, I strongly suggest you vacate your immediate area... We've had... a slight disturbance... on the two floors above your laboratory."

"JARVIS... what aren't you telling me?", said a frowning Tony. JARVIS hesitated for a second before replying, "I fear it will become obvious, sir... in three... two..."

With an enormously loud crash, Steve, Shepard and a now, finally starting to return to normal Bruce, landed where Tony had been standing less than a minute earlier. "One...", JARVIS helpfully finished.

At that point one of Tony's lab robots, DUM-E, decided that this was the perfect time to play Fire Marshall, and then the helpful little robot doused all three from them in fire retardant.

Tony was absolutely dumbfounded and, even more rare for him, completely silent. Shepard was the first to get up and attempted to wipe herself off. This had to be the first time he ever saw her looking sheepish, and guilty as hell.

"So... uh, invent anything awesome lately Tony?", Samantha still didn't quite bring herself to look him in the eyes. Tony sighed deeply and said, "Shep did you, Captain Chaos, and Mr. Smash Everything!, just destroy _two_ of my fucking floors?"

Samantha responded by hold out her hand and giving him a ripped and crumpled up ten dollar bill. "Uh... will this help?", Tony just face palmed, and started shaking his head.

"Hey! Is everybody okay down there?" Everyone looked up to see Clint and Natasha, now partially dressed, leaning over the gaping hole in Clint's bedroom.

A frustrated Natasha, quickly looked the scene over, and roughly grabbing Clint said to him, "Their fine Clint. My room. NOW."

The last thing any of the group below him saw of Clint, was a big stupid grin on his face, as Natasha dragged him away.

"Well... I'll be damned! You were right, buddy.", Tony said, as he walked over to a dust and fire retardant coated Bruce, who was still siting on the floor next to a now firetruck-red Steve, and proceeded to hand him a, beat to hell, ten dollar bill.

A/N: It's amazing how fast money can travel, isn't it? Here's hoping you all got as much of a laugh out of this chapter as I did!


	12. Chapter 12

Quintessential Hero

Disclaimer: If I actually owned any of this... that would be so damn awesome! Sadly, I do not own any of these great characters.

Summary:Post ME3, and starts during The Avengers movie. Thanks to a certain omnipotent being with a penchant for mind games, Samantha Shepard finds herself in a strange new world.

Author's Notes: I just want you all to know, I've gotten so much enjoyment out of writing this little story and your reactions to it! Thank you to everyone who has read, favored and/or alerted my story! A special thank you to all my reviewers... you glorious Bosh'tet's!

Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. - Friedrich Nietzsche

Chapter 12

As the six of them gathered for a quick breakfast that morning, Tony was still a little bit annoyed with Samantha, Steve, and Bruce. They had practically demolished an entire floor, and punched a hole through another one, on top of that.

He glowered at his house guests, then with a small grin thought, _Oh well, at least I got to see the look on Shep's face when she realized that I, her own personal genius, fixed up some of her cool toys. And look on the bright side Tony, Pepper will love getting to redesign that floor and... Oh shit! _

Tony jumped out of his seat saying, "Well I'm screwed guys, gotta run, I promised Pepper I'd be at JFK to pick her up..." He glanced at his watch, "Fifteen minutes ago! ...Huh... I wonder if the FAA would get on my ass if I did a little stunt show for the kiddies... over the runway to delay her flight..."

Before anyone could tell him what a horrible idea that was, Tony was on his cell phone saying, "Happy, I need you to drive like the wind on over to JFK airport, now!"

After that, everyone waited in fascination, as he raced to the elevator, and about thirty seconds later they all watched Iron Man fly off, determined to royally fuck up some poor JFK Flight Controller's day.

"That man... is completely... utterly... insane.", Shepard muttered, as she lowered her head and put her face in her hands.

Clint suddenly perked up, and smirking at Bruce said, "Speaking of insane... why did you pull that crazy stunt last night, Bruce. You and Steve should have been smarter, and grabbed us." He looked over to Samantha and continued, " I, for one, would have gladly come to help you out, Shepard."

Shepard was mildly irritated at Clint comments, and as she raised her head, she saw that both Steve and Bruce, especially Bruce, were extremely embarrassed.

Both of them, were trying their damnedest to focus solely on the food in front of them. Natasha didn't look particularly happy with Clint, either.

Shepard just cocked an eyebrow and replied, "Thanks Clint... but I'm sure you already do that plenty with Natasha... no need to involve me."

Steve promptly spit out his corn flakes, and Bruce was trying his best not to laugh out loud. Shepard expected Natasha to be pissed at her, but instead the SHIELD agent just gave her a small grin.

Then smirking at him, Natasha looked over next to her, at a now slightly blushing Clint, and said, "Hey Shepard go easy on Clint... he just likes to help people... repeatedly."

Steve had made the mistake of taking another spoonful of corn flakes, and this time, he spewed them half-way across the table. "Okay... I think I'm done with breakfast guys.", he said as he wiped up his mess, picked up his bowl, and headed towards the kitchen.

If Clint had been mildly blushing before, then he was doing Steve proud now. Bruce must have decided that was a good time to change the subject, as he said to Shepard, "Hey Samantha, check this out... you apparently have a new nickname in the media."

Grimacing, Samantha took the dinosaur of a laptop computer that Bruce handed to her, and replied, "I gotta say, even where I come from, I never had the best relationship with reporters." As she read the headline, her jaw dropped, as she loudly said, "The Blue Blaze? ...Your kidding me, right?"

"Nope... I think their already selling posters and t-shirts with you on them.", Natasha said to her. Samantha just dropped her head back down into her hands, and in a muffled voice said, "Jesus... I'm only here a little more than a week, and I'm already a damn poster girl again!"

A blinding white flash suddenly stunned everyone, and as Steve came running back from the kitchen, he shouted, "What happened? Wait... guys... where's Shepard?"

Every one of them just stared at the recently occupied seat, which was now disturbingly vacant.

**Ah yes "Page Breaks" a lit- So sorry to bother you, dear readers. I just needed to borrow the main protagonist for a few minutes... Sincerely - Q**

Shepard blinked, trying to clear her vision, as she found herself in very familiar place. "Really? You couldn't think of anything better than white in very direction?", she observed of her odd surroundings.

Once again, just like the unending whiteness around her, the same man, still in a Fleet Admiral's uniform, was standing a few feet away from her, with a huge grin on his smug face.

He gave her a slight bow and boomed,"Welcome back, _Mon Capitaine de fregate_! Your humble servant Q, is so glad to see you again! I'm also happy to see your taking very well to your new life. How you can care about that fellow, who can turn into a giant... green... grotesque... monster... at a moments notice, is beyond my understanding though."

Shepard sneered at him, activated her biotics, and replied, "Q... Just so you know... If you were any other man... I would kill you where you stand!"

Suddenly, he started laughing, and told her, "Ha! You sound just like an old friend of mine... Mr. Woof... I'm sure you two would have liked each other... he's actually very similar to your hump-backed friend... Wrex."

All the mirth on his face seemed to drain away when Shepard didn't seem to give a flying fuck about his comment. In a much darker tone he said, "You should be grateful to me Samantha... I saved your pathetic little mortal life... and on top of that... I am graciously giving you another gift."

Shepard deactivated her biotics, and crossing her arms said, "I don't suppose, if I told you to shove _this_ gift up your ass, you'd actually listen to me?"

He smirked and replied, "No... I believe that would be most uncomfortable and impractical. For me, and my gift to you, which you might really like, by the way.

Shepard flinched as Q snapped his fingers and, in a bright white flash, a man appeared on the ground between them. He was nude, unconscious, and seemed to be badly injured, with cuts, bruises, and burns on most of his body.

Samantha couldn't stop herself from quickly kneeling down by the man and checking on him. She felt a rage building inside her, as she yelled at the smug man standing over them, "What the hell did you do to this man, Q! I don't know how... but I'll make sure you pay-"

Q cut her off with a wave of his hand, and told her, "My dear Samantha, _I _had nothing to do with his injuries, actually in a way, he was responsible for them himself. If anything, I have bought him back to a far better state of health than where he ended up. Oddly enough, he was also in a massive fiery explosion... just like you Samantha... although, I suspect it was the fall beforehand that actually killed him.

Quickly looking the wounded man over, Shepard almost gasped when she finally got a good look at his face. Samantha gently placed a shaking hand on the man's face, and thought, _It... it can't be him. I saw him die on Mindoir all those years ago!_

Shepard, tears of joy streaming down her face, was just barely able to stutter out, "Mi... Michael!"

Q got down, kneeling on one knee next to her, and whispered in her ear, "Whats wrong Samantha... you didn't recognize your own brother when you saw him?"

Q snapped his fingers again, and everything became a flash of, blindly bright, white light.

**There... I thought you might find that mildly interesting, my dear readers. Now I'll let this "Page Break" and story continue. The one and only – Q -dismissed that claim.**

Only a few minutes had passed since Shepard had suddenly vanished right in front of everyone, and they were frantically searching for her.

Bruce was hoping it was only Samantha's doing, deciding to pull a cruel little prank on them with her powers. When they didn't find her on that floor, or any of several floors they checked above and below them, Bruce, once again, found himself worried sick for her.

As Clint, Natasha, Steve, and lastly, Bruce, gathered back around the kitchen table, Bruce said, "So... your all telling me you didn't find a trace of Samantha... in this entire building! That's nuts guys, she has to be somewhere!

Steve leaned over to Bruce, and placing a hand on his shoulder said, "Listen buddy, we don't know what happened... but I promise you we'll-", He was cut off by another blinding flash of white light.

"Find... her...", Steve finished, as they all gazed at the incredible site before them. Shepard was smiling, and crying, outright sobbing, as she knelt, holding onto a nude and, even more alarmingly, severely wounded man.

Steve instantly took charge of the situation as he knelt by Samantha and ordered, "Bruce, call SHIELD now, and tell them to send medics ASAP! Natasha, we need blankets and a first aide kit, as fast as you can grab them! Clint, I need you to head down to Tony's lab and grab something he was working on for Shepard, it should be labeled 'medi-gel'.

All three of them started moving into action, not even wasting time on the why or how, of there being an injured naked man, on their kitchen floor. Steve just tried his best to calm Samantha down, softly saying to her, "I promise you... he's going to be alright Samantha... whoever he is."

Samantha, for the first time since reappearing, noticed someone else in the room, turned to Steve, and said with pride and joy in her voice, "He's my big brother! ... Michael Shepard."

At that moment the elevator door opened and Steve, expecting Clint, looked up to see, a very surprised, Tony and Pepper, walking into the kitchen. Tony just stared at them and said, "Okay... so... what did we miss?"

A/N: Meet Commander Michael Shepard everyone! And no... I'm not telling you anything else about him... not until the next chapter! (Insert evil cackling laughter here.) ... Oh fine! Don't look at me with those puppy dog eyes! ... I will say that he was... far less fortunate, overall, than his sister.


	13. Chapter 13

Quintessential Hero

Disclaimer: I own nothing... except the author's crazy imagination!

Summary:Post ME3, and starts during The Avengers movie. Thanks to a certain omnipotent being with a penchant for mind games, Samantha Shepard finds herself in a strange new world.

Author's Notes: Sorry for the longer wait between chapters guys. But the plot bunnies are now attacking again! I just suddenly KNEW that I had to write more of this story!

Thank you to everyone who has read, favored and/or alerted my story! A special thank you to all my reviewers... you glorious Bosh'tet's!

I'd like to give a personal thank you to author Lycanwolff who was kind enough to let me use an idea from her incredibly well written story: The Future That I See. Be sure to check it out! (Details in end A/N.)

Samantha Shepard: *Glares icily at the author* Ahem. You forgetting something Archer?

Archer83: What now Sam? Oh... *Notices R.J. is still on her hands an knees.* Ah Geez! Please don't do that because of me! Here... *Author gives her a hand and helps her get back up.* Thanks for your wonderful review Northie!

Samantha Shepard: That's better.

Both their destinations, without Q's meddling, would have been vastly different as Michael never got as far on the journey as his sister did in her universe. But now, no matter how much they both lost on their own separate journeys, they at least have each other. As well as Samantha's devoted new friends.

Chapter 13

**Three days later...**

Beep... Beep... Beep...

'_What the hell is that annoying sound?_' a semi-conscious Commander Micheal Shepard thought, just before his last moments of consciousness suddenly flooded back into his mind.

The defiant look on Joker's face, as he practically begged him to get the Normandy the hell out of there. Then that horribly long fall into the abyss below him. The pride and relief at seeing the Normandy streaking away as he fell. Then, nothing.

He instantly bolted upright in what looked to be some sort of med bay or hospital room. The repetitive noise was coming from a machine, which was attached to him by wires, that was to the side of the bed he woke up on.

"Hey! Look whose finally awake!"

Micheal's head jerked toward the only other thing making noise in the room, a man siting in the corner. He was of medium build with a clean shaven face, dark hair, and brown eyes, who also had a slight grin plastered on his face.

"Figures... Samantha wouldn't leave your bedside for three days stra-"

He was cut off by the sight of Micheal ripping the heart monitor patches and I.V. lines from his body and then leaping at the sitting man. In the next instant Micheal had the man in a head lock with one arm pressed painfully behind his back.

"Now listen to me _very _carefully.", he quietly said into the man's ear, "Where is this place and who are you? Cerberus? Alliance?"

When he only got gurgling from the man in return, he let up slightly on his choke hold.

Now able to breath and speak the man told him, "I don't know what your talking about! Trust me, no one here wants to hurt you... I'm a friend of your sister."

Micheal almost laughed at this idiot's stupid little ploy, "Nice one pal... my sister's been dead for more than fifteen years. Care to try again?"

"I swear it's the truth!", his hostage managed to gasp out.

"Yeah... right... now you've got five seconds to tell me what the hell is going on here before I snap your damn neck. Five... Four... Three..."

Before he could even utter 'Two' the door of the room opened revealing an auburn haired woman with emerald eyes, and dark haired man about her height, who had brown eyes and a small beard. Micheal couldn't say why, but the woman seemed familiar in some way.

"Ah damn it... _every time_ I walk away... this _sucks _Bruce! First you and the guys get to see Shep and Mr. Clothing Optional over there...", The breaded man pointed at Micheal, who was still semi-strangling 'Bruce', "Appear out of freaking no-where in my kitchen! Now this!"

The woman just glared at her talkative friend, then elbowed him hard in the ribs to get him to shut up. This must have reminded him of something important, as his tone suddenly changed.

"Oh. _Right._ The whole enormous-green-rage-monster thing! Okay... new plan Brucey just stay mellow while we deal with this guy. Say it with me... _Goosfraba. Goosfraba._ Everything is gonna be hunky-dory buddy..."

Bruce, _still in a choke hold,_ could be heard mumbling something, but it decidedly sounded more like 'Gofuckyourself' than 'Goosfraba'.

"Please Micheal... Mikey, please let him go..." The woman put her right hand on her chest saying, "It's me Sammy... You're safe, I promise you."

That voice. It had been so long since he had gotten to hear that sweet, kind, funny, silly, annoying voice. '_It... it can't possibly be her! I saw her die on Mindoir!'_

Micheal was confused as he looked at this woman, and instantly saw in her the young girl he had loved so much. "Sammy... is that you?" But then, his face hardened as he clenched his jaw.

"You can't be my _sister_! She's dead. Is this just another one of T.I.M.'s sick ideas? Trick his Cerberus toy with some copy of my dead little sister?"

The guy with the trimmed bread snarked, "Sorry to tell you this Shep, but Big Brother over there seems like a total wacko..."

"Shut up Tony!", Samantha snapped at him.

Just then, three more people arrived at the door. Two men and a woman who all looked mildly upset and extremely cautious. This was all the excuse Micheal needed to clamp down on Bruce's neck.

The woman by the door, who was also red-headed, looked to be pulling a rather old looking weapon out of a holster on her leg.

Micheal had had enough as he yelled, "Either you all back away NOW or-"

A split second later Micheal found himself being thrown across the room, along with Bruce, and slammed into the wall. On impact he was heavily dazed and 'Bruce' managed to untangle himself from him.

As he began to pass out he saw the weirdest thing. One of the newly arrived men by the door grabbed what looked like a tranquillizer and, with expert aim, nailed his former hostage right in the neck.

"Ouch! Damn it Clint! ...Nice shot.", Bruce said, as he plucked a needle from his neck and then promptly fell over onto the floor, unconscious.

Clint looked at the still conscious people around him, all of which were staring and/or glaring at him and said, "_What? _... Better safe than sorry right?"

As her biotic aura quickly faded, Samantha seemed to be torn over which man to help first. The whole mess would have been kinda funny, if it wasn't for the frightened look they all caught in her eyes.

There was a smirk on Tony's face, as if he knew exactly what was going to happen next.

Steve, being his boring-dependable-honest self, pushed passed the group and wouldn't ya know it, immediately took charge of the situation. "Okay, Clint and Natasha help out Bruce. Tony, help me get 'Micheal' back in bed."

Tony mock saluted him saying,"Sure thing Spangles."

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks", A literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim.**

A short while later in the Helicarrier's Infirmary, the five of them had placed Shepard's psycho of a brother back in bed, with restraints _this _time. Poor Bruce had been placed on a near-by chair to more comfortably awaken after the drugs wore off.

Natasha hadn't once taken her eyes off Shepard's 'brother' after he showed just how dangerous he could be. If he really was her brother that is. She found it fairly hard to believe, but Shepard kept on surprising her almost every day.

"I... thanks guys." Samantha said to them, looking guilty as hell.

Steve grabbed another chair for her and placed it so she could sit in between the two unconscious men, saying, "I know what your thinking Shepard... don't blame yourself."

"I should have _BEEN _here!", she growled, and then she hung her head staring at the floor, continuing in a near whisper, "I could have calmed him down if it had just been us."

Knowing the horrible amount of guilt Shepard must be feeling right now, Natasha walked over and gently placed both her hands on Samantha's face, lifting her head up. Even knowing her fairly well, Clint, Steve, and Tony were mildly shocked by her sudden compassionate act.

As she forced Samantha to look into her eyes, Natasha quietly told her, "Listen to me Shepard. You saw how he reacted to you, it wouldn't have done any good. When Micheal wakes up you'll find a way to get through to him. As far as Bruce... he'll be fine, so stop blaming yourself for something that would have happened no matter who talked to Micheal first."

Clint chimed in with, "She's right Shepard, if anything _we _screwed up, not you. How could you _not _expect your own brother to believe you." He then motioned to everyone standing around him saying, "We all should have taken better precautions, just in case."

This brought on a round a nods from every conscious Avenger in the room.

Tony picked that moment to burst out with, "Okay... _that's it_. I'm officially planting my ass right here..." He gracelessly plopped down into a chair near the door, as he finished, "Until the two knocked out guys with obvious aggression issues wake up, and I find out what the hell is going on _for once_!"

No one bothered to point out how silly or childish he was acting because well, he was Tony Stark. Trying to talk sense into a brick wall would have been more effective.

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks", a literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim.**

Another three hours had passed by the time Bruce had groggily woken up, and was oddly amused to find himself sitting in the same chair he had originally been in earlier.

The next thing he noticed was how tightly Samantha was hugging him as she whispered, "I'm really glad you didn't get hurt badly Bruce... Sorry for the _quality time_ you had alone with my big brother.", She said this last part lightly and Bruce saw a small grin form on her lips as she finally pulled away from him.

As Bruce watched Samantha sit back down next to her brother, he couldn't help musing, '_Well it figures... I meet a nice interesting woman... who is from another time... and dimension... who also happens to have a violently psychotic brother... And I think I've fallen for her. Great... that's just great.' _

It turned out everyone was just as determined as Tony to stay with Samantha. At least until she could finally have an actual conversation with her apparently, _extremely_, estranged brother.

About five minutes later, Bruce couldn't help flinching as Samantha's brother began to stir once again. After a moment it was obvious to everyone that Micheal wouldn't, and more importantly _couldn't_, cause any more trouble.

It was also obvious that Micheal didn't plan on talking to anyone anytime soon. He just quietly stared at the ceiling and was doing a thorough job of ignoring all of the rooms' other occupants.

Bruce stood up, his legs starting to go numb from sitting so long, and told the others,"Um... Why don't we all get some air..."

Everyone except Samantha started to head out of the room, with even Tony taking the hint to leave, but he still groused, "Why must I _always_ miss the interesting stuff..."

Bruce was the last out, as he gently pushed Tony into the hallway beyond closing the door, and saying to his friends, "Come on guys, I think Fury said it was Sloppy-Joe Night in the mess-hall."

With Bruce leading the way, Clint, Natasha, and Tony could be heard complaining about the quality of the food on-board the Helicarrier, but Steve actually brightened up at this little piece of information saying, "They still make Sloppy-Joes? Great! I love those things!", as he headed after them down the corridor.

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks", a literary device used to change scenes while allowing for consumption of "Sloppy-Joes". We have dismissed that claim.**

Samantha tried to get Micheal's attention by giving him a small smile, saying, "Wow... I guess you _really think_ this is some sort of trap don't you?"

When he did finally look at her, all she got from him was an icy glare from his oh-so-familiar pale blue eyes. He had definitely taken more after their mom, while she gotten most of her looks from dad.

It had been a major shock for her to see him alive again, at first. But that had quickly been replaced by the joy of getting a second chance to be with her long dead brother. She realized Clint was right when he had tried to comfort her earier. Part of her had expected Micheal to just trust his sister, no matter how strange or miraculous their fate was.

"Come on... you have to be dieing to ask me what the hells going on Mikey! Don't give me the stupid silent treatment." She said, as she pulled a chair closer to his bed.

He just looked back at the ceiling and replied, "Micheal Francis Shepard, Commander Systems Alliance, serial number SA27577555"

Samantha just face palmed and told him,"Really? Name, rank and S.N.? Mikey, you have to believe me! I _am_ your sister dammit... but how do I prove it to you?..."

"Micheal Francis Shepard, Commander Systems Alliance, serial number-"

Micheal was cut off by the sound of Samantha snapping her fingers, "Aha! Alright then... five things no one else could possibly know about you!"

She started counting off on her hand, "One, that really nasty collection of Fornax data pads I found behind a hidden panel in your room..."

Samantha was annoyed when her brother continued his little mantra of name, rank and serial number. She didn't bother to pause again as she recited the rest of her list.

"Two, the way you cried like a baby when our dog, Max, died as I was hugging you. Three, the look on your face when I told you that I knew Jessica Dempson was one the who popped your cherry. Four, you _always_ told me a joke to cheer me up when I was depressed, and wouldn't stop until you had me in tears laughing. And five, when I was little whenever we had a really bad thunderstorm, I would get scared, go crawl in bed with you, and sleep huddled up next to your back."

It wasn't until she finished speaking that Samantha realized the room was silent.

Micheal just stared in awe at her before speaking, "My God... It _really is_ you... Sammy?'

"Finally! He sees the light! I _would_ tell you how we seem to have gotten in this mess... but I can barely believe it myself... so maybe later on that question.", Samantha laughed as she sat down on the side of his bed.

"I... I don't understand... This can't be right, but it really is you...", This revelation only seemed to deepen his confusion. Suddenly he seemed to get very upset and was almost sobbing.

Samantha leaned over and gently placed a hand on his cheek, telling him, "Mikey, it's okay... whatever happened to you, we're both here now. I promise you... everything is going to be alright.

He looked at her, and his tears in his eyes said, "Sammy I... I have to tell you something... please don't hate me..." Before she could even assure him that would never happen he continued, "I couldn't believe it was actually you... because I saw you die during the raid on Mindoir..."

Samantha could see the fear and sadness in Micheal's eyes as he quietly said, "They had already killed so many, and were rounding up any survivors. Mom and dad were already dead, then I saw them capture you... saw you struggle and yell for help as they put a slave collar on you. I grabbed a pistol off a fallen neighbor and ran towards you... but there were so damn _many_ of them. By the time I got closer to their ships... they were pulling you, kicking and screaming, into a hatch. ...And then you just looked right at me and shouted, "Please Mikey!", and I raised my pistol... and... and then... OH GOD I'M SO SORRY SAMMY! PLEASE FORGIVE ME... I COULDN'T SAVE YOU!

As she felt the tears starting to flow down her own cheeks, Samantha undid Micheal's restraints and laid down next him. She gently brought his head to her shoulder and tightly hugged him as she felt his heavy racking sobs against her chest.

When he started to clam down, and his breathing became steadier Samantha softly whispered in his ear, "It's okay Mikey, you had to do it... It was the only thing you _could_ have done... I forgive you, and I love you."

Samantha Shepard felt a happiness she rarely knew, now that she truly had her brother back, as he fell asleep in her arms.

A/N: Sorry if this chapter didn't contain as much humor as usual but I felt it needed to be a little more serious. T.I.M. = The Illusive Man for those of you here mainly for the Avengers story! Goosfraba comes from one of Jack Nickolson's best movies, Anger Management. Watch that and try not a laugh... I dare you. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, feel free to leave a review and tell me what you think!

**For Anyone Who Hasn't Read 'The Future That I See' Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert! **

Lastly, the scene where Micheal tells Samantha exactly why he couldn't believe her at first was heavily inspired by a scene in The Future That I See by Lycanwolff. If you've never heard of it before be sure to give it a read!


	14. Chapter 14

Quintessential Hero

Disclaimer: I own nothing... except the author's crazy imagination!

Summary:Post ME3, and starts during The Avengers movie. Thanks to a certain omnipotent being with a penchant for mind games, Samantha Shepard finds herself in a strange new world.

Author's Notes: I hope you all enjoyed the previous chapter, and this one as well! I find it's a little harder for me to write highly dramatic scenes, as I really prefer more humorous situations. Well you'll just have to read and review, and tell me how I did! Also, I think Micheal Shepard deserves a theme of his own. Running Up That Hill by Placebo, it suits him rather well. Shot In The Dark by Within Temptation, is Samantha's theme. (I've placed links for each Shepard's theme in my profile!) Lastly, I like to say thank you to all of my readers and reviewers, I'm glad so many people have found and enjoyed this story!

Samantha Shepard: *Runs up to the author and tackles/bear-hugs him, knocking said author to the ground*

Archer83: Oh God! This is it... what did I do to piss you off Samantha? Please... just make it quick! *Author slams his eyes shut and waits for the inevitable*

Samantha Shepard: Well... since you asked nicely... *Shepard plants a kiss on the authors cheek and lets him up* Thank you for giving me a second chance with Micheal, Archer.

Archer83: Huh... *As the author blushes profusely* ...Oh, ah sure thing Sam...

Chapter 14

_'No... I can't bear to see this... not again...', _Samantha thought, as she took in the smoking ruins around her that had once, so long ago, been her home. She felt a hot tear run down her cheek, she knew what was coming, this was far from the first time she had had this dream.

Samantha watched, utterly transfixed, as the young, innocent, fiery-haired girl, ran past her looking for any place to hide, any way out of this hell. Before the fifteen year old got much farther, two adult male batarians had caught up to her, and viciously tackled her to the ground. As she kicked and screamed for them to let her go the batarians just laughed.

A helpless Samantha scowled at them, while she watched from a short distance away.

"You think we have time for a little _extra_ fun with this one Xurral?", the man's partner just grinned and said, "We can spare a few minutes... I like the feisty ones."

A sad grin formed on Samantha's lips as she saw a young man, armed only with a knife and his fists, run at one of the batarian's, jumping at the last second, and drop-kicking the man as hard as possible.

_'If only he hadn't chosen to be the big damn hero... that needed to save a naive and stupid little sister who had gotten herself caught so easily..." _, Samantha thought, even as the profound pride at her brother's brave actions shone in her eyes.

Taken by surprise, the second batarian was stunned to see this eighteen year old human barreling at him, his knife glinting in the sunlight, with murder in his eyes. A split second later, a blade was buried deep into the batarian's throat through the open front section of his helmet.

The boy raced to his sister helping her up, and they both started to dart away as fast as their terrified feet could carry them.

Samantha couldn't help wincing as a pistol round tore into the brother's shoulder and he stumbled in intense pain.

As he fell to the ground, his sister desperately trying to help him back up, he told her, "Sammy please... get the hell out of here! NOW!"

Tears streaming down her face, his sister started sobbing, and quickly whispered, "_I love you_!", in his ear. Then she dashed away at break neck speed, not stopping until she was kneeling, just over the top of a small hill, roughly one hundred meters from him.

Samantha could feel the tears starting to flow over her own cheeks, as the horrible event unfolded, yet again, right in front of her.

"YOU! Human, call that bitch sister of yours back here now, or I swear I'll end your worthless life!", the batarian who had been drop-kicked, yelled at the boy. The man motioned with his pistol for the boy to get up off the ground. He slowly nodded, and got to his feet.

Yelling in the general direction in which she had run, her brother said,"Samantha... I need you to do something for me!...", and then Micheal, shouting at the top of his lungs bellowed, "RUN SAMMY! RUN AS FAST AS-"

BANG.

Samantha jolted awake, the crack of a distant gun shot still ringing in her ears. Words couldn't describe the sense of relief she felt in that moment, as she looked over and saw Micheal, peacefully sleeping next to her on the infirmary bed.

She leaned closer, and softly whispering in his ear, said, "I've missed you so badly Mikey... I'm _never_ leaving you again.", as she laid her head on his chest. A short while later she was lulled into a peaceful, dreamless, sleep by the steady beat of his heart.

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks", A literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim. **

**Five Days Later...**

The five of them were at the table in Tony's kitchen, sitting down to eat. Tony was grudgingly Pulled from his lab for a few minutes, literally by bioticly glowing Samantha, a slight blue aura surrounding him as well, with his arms crossed and his feet dragging along the floor like a stubborn child.

As Tony slumped down in a chair and Samantha told him, "Now stay put dammit! Escape is _impossible_...", Micheal Shepard found himself gazing around the table at the three men that his sister seemed to consider very close friends.

They certainly were a _unique_ group of people, to say the least. Samantha had talked them into, as she called it, a 'Welcome Back!' dinner for him. Well, maybe not talked into, as much a dragged kicking and screaming in Tony's case. He had been released into their custody, he was logically guessing, earlier that day. 'Their' being, Tony, Steve, and Bruce.

Apparently the two SHIELD agents in the group, Clint and Natasha, had been given an urgent assignment three days after he woke up. After only two days had passed Samantha, he noticed, already seemed worried about them. She had explained to him that the SHIELD agents were actually very much like an earlier version of the Spectres.

She also had told him that Thor, a supposed Demi-god from another realm called Asgard, would, she hoped, return to see them soon. To say that Micheal was confused by this interesting bit of news was an understatement.

Just before he had been allowed to leave the Helicarrier with them, he had received a stern warning from a rather serious man with a eye-patch, who had told him, "I've had about as much odd shit happening around here as I can take lately, but I trust your sister and the judgment of her associates. You do one thing to make me change my mind and your ass is getting locked up in the deepest, darkest, hole I can find. We understand each other?"

Micheal had been sorely tempted to tell the man, who was obviously in charge of this 'SHIELD' organization, _exactly _what he thought of him, but Samantha had grabbed into his arm tightly, saying, "Of course he understands Director Fury... _don't you_ Micheal?"

"Perfectly", had been his terse reply.

_'Well, this is either the longest, weirdest, and most wonderful dream I've ever had or... maybe this IS actually happening.' _A still very much confused Micheal Shepard mused to himself, as the last few days drifted through his mind.

The first day had been the toughest for him to get through.

When the truth had hit him like a biotic Slam, literally and metaphorically, Micheal had broken down at the sight of his long dead little sister and told her the horrible truth about what he had done, not being able to stop himself.

He thought for sure that she would only see in him the monster Micheal had always felt, deep down, that he was. When he woke up, with Samantha still laying next to him, her head on his chest, and gently holding him, he had never felt more grateful to anyone in his life.

They had been left alone most of that first day, talking, reminiscing over their vastly different memories, and joking. They both just simply enjoyed being with each other again, because of this wondrous blessing fate had gifted to them, or apparently because of some, very annoying, entity called 'Q'. Oh, and the little thing about this being a different dimension/universe and time.

Micheal was still trying to wrap his head around everything that had happened, but he really didn't care about the 'how' of it all. He had the one thing he needed most, family.

Samantha didn't say anything about it, but she thought it was odd that Micheal talked so little of the SR-2 Normandy and their, apparently very similar, damn fine crew mates, but she didn't feel the need to push him.

She mentally shuddered as she thought, '_What isn't he telling me... it must be even worse than our shared experience of the first Normandy's destruction...' _Stories of Joker, Tali, Garrus and the rest of those she felt were her greatest friends, could wait. She found herself hoping, just as fervently as she had for her own crew, that they were somewhere safe.

On the second day after he woke up, the people Samantha had obviously come to know as close friends had introduced themselves, some more tactfully than others.

Steve Rogers, Clint Barton, Natasha Romanoff, and Bruce Banner all seemed like genuinely good people, who cared bout his sister. The self described genius-playboy-billionaire-philanthropist, Tony Stark, just seemed like a complete asshole. Micheal really couldn't understand how the hell Samantha could put up with him.

By the third day, Samantha had gently, and subtly, managed to make him feel guilty as hell over almost severely hurting Bruce. Maybe he was just being paranoid, but he had a strong gut feeling that she really liked the guy.

Not too surprisingly, definitely not to Samantha at least, on the fourth day he found himself apologizing to the good Dr. for choking the shit out of him, repeatedly. As it turned out, from what he had been told about Bruce, Micheal was the lucky one.

_'So this guy can turn into a huge-green-rage-monster_ at the drop of a credit... and my little sister is attracted to him... I think the two of us will have a nice little chat, when I can get him alone...', Micheal simmered, as he stared at Bruce from across the dinner table.

Seeing that her brother was practically glaring at Bruce for the last minute or so, Samantha jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow.

Micheal almost jumped out of his seat, she had always been the only person who could ever actually take him by surprise. A very amused Micheal thought, _'Ouch! Dammit, how does she do that? Hell, I never even let Tali sneak up...' _

Everyone at the table couldn't help noticing the dark and somber expression that came over his face at that moment. It made Samantha all the more determined to find out with was hurting him so badly inside.

"Oh... that's _interesting_. Watch out there Bruce... Looks like your already on Big Brother's shit list.", snarked a grinning Tony, even as he received the patented 'Commander Shepard Glare of Death', twice.

Bruce looked up at hearing his name, "Huh... what? I'm on what now?", his mind had been stuck in a new scientific journal he was reading at the table.

As Samantha looked at Bruce, her glare at Tony turning into a soft smile, she tried to defuse the situation, telling him, "It's nothing Bruce, don't worry about it."

Bruce felt his heart skip a beat at seeing her smile, but still being deeply confused, he said, "Um... sure Samantha... no worrying, got it!" The sudden heat in his cheeks forced him to look down at his food as he pretended to continue reading.

Steve just shook his head, sat back, a gave a deep sigh, _'Why does Tony insist on irritating everyone he meets... and here we go in three, two, one... Huh. I guess not, this ti-'_

"Well... I think it's kinda... _cute..._ how overprotective Big Brother is of his little sis. After all, I've seen just how good he always was at _protecting _her. Especially after I hacked the Infirmary surveillance camera feeds... ", a smug Tony mustered his best shit-eating-grin.

The room was filled with a complete, and extremely tense, silence.

With a dangerous gleam in his eyes, Micheal grinned back at Tony, and calmly said, "My _name _is Micheal_, _that's with my friends call me anyway. You can call me Shepard... How about I call you...", He snapped his fingers, a habit he and his sister shared, continuing, "The-Asshole-With-A-Nightlight-In-His-Chest... or just... Asshole, for short."

Steve almost choked on his spaghetti and meatballs, and Bruce couldn't stop himself from laughing slightly as he spoke up, "That kinda has a nice ring to it Tony..." When he looked up and saw the way Micheal and Tony were still glaring at each other he added, "...or not."

Quickly recovering, Steve tried to intervene, "Hey, come on guys... lets not get off on the wrong foot here!" Unfortunately for Steve, and everyone else, Tony didn't know when to shut up.

Tony just smiled, but his eyes sure as hell weren't smiling, as he said, "Very clever... _Micheal_, I didn't know you were capable of stringing that many words together in a sentence. Oh... and Steve... speaking of _getting off_, I really think Big Brother here is way to concerned over who his little sister is _fucking... _Isn't that right, _Francis?_"

Even if Tony hadn't just shocked Steve and Bruce with his hurtful repeated callousness, or royally pissed off Samantha with his complete invasion of her privacy, it's doubtful they could have stopped what happened a split-second later.

In little more than the blink of an eye, Micheal had bolted up from his sit, reached over the table, grabbed Tony by his throat with one hand, and punched him in the face so hard with the other, that he landed on the kitchen floor with an obviously broken nose.

Samantha and Steve immediately grabbed Micheal before he could do any more harm, as Bruce took some napkins and started to staunch Tony's swiftly bleeding nose.

Looking down at Tony from the other side of the table, Micheal growled, "If you _EVER _talk about me... or my sister, like that again... I will fucking _end_ you Stark!

"That's ENOUGH!", a bioticly glowing Samantha shouted into Micheal's ear.

Glaring at her brother, then down at the still stunned Tony, she yelled, "What the hell is WRONG with the two of you?" Then she let out a massively irritated huff of air, as she continued to yell, "Do I have to put both of you in _goddamn Stasis_, in separate corners for fuck sake! Stop acting like fucking _children_, and get the fuck _along _with each other. _NOW!_

Steve and Bruce found themselves incredibly impressed with how fast Tony and Micheal managed to get back in their seats.

A slightly calmer Samantha nodded at them and said, "That's better. Now, Bruce could you please go and get some of the medi-gel Tony cooked up in his lab?"

"On it!", Bruce said, as he was already running, and thinking, '_Not gonna take the elevator, to damn slow... last thing I need is her angry with me too!' _He probably set a few records of his own, as he somehow managed to run down to Tony's lab, get the sample, and run back in under two minutes.

As soon as Steve and Bruce had, painfully, reset Tony's nose they applied a bit of medi-gel to heal the skin and cartilage, almost instantaneously.

Samantha quietly asked him, "Tony, are you alright?"

Tony, just barely, avoided flinching at the sound of her voice, and softly said, " Yup. I'm good... no complaints whatsoever.

Samantha gave Tony and Micheal a look that could melt steel, calmly telling them, "Micheal, Tony, you are going to apologize for being complete and utter assholes to each other tonight, then we are going to have a _relaxing _and _pleasant _dinner. Do I make myself clear?"

The two men shook hands over the table and murmured half-assed apologies to one another, thanks to one of the oldest fears in the universe. The wrath of a righteously pissed off woman. Who, in this case, could smash them into a fine paste, if so desired.

Archer83: Wow... that got a little tense Sam.

Samantha Shepard: Archer... Please shut up and eat your spaghetti and meatballs.

Archer83: ... Yes ma'am.

A/N: Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned... indeed! Just be glad for Tony's sake that Micheal didn't have a pistol! Yup another dark chapter full of angst filled drama. Don't worry folks the next chapter will be full of action and deep space daring-do! Wait... I've said too much already!

Now here's anything and everything you might want to know about Micheal Shepard:

If it isn't obvious by now, Micheal lost everyone in his universe, except Joker and EDI, who would have been most likely killed during the events of Mass Effect 3. This wasn't due to any negligence on his part, he did his best to protect them and had his ship and crew fully prepared for the last mission. He even went to rescue his kidnapped crew as fast as possible. But as the poet Robert Burns wrote, 'The best laid schemes of mice and men, often go awry.'

He is most definitely a Renagon personality, so he might not always be the nicest guy, or easy to get along with, but he'll always at least try do the right thing at the end of the day. This stems from the different events during the colony raid and Micheal basically being forced to kill Samantha.

He will absolutely do whatever it takes to get the job done, preferring to risk himself as much, or more than, anyone under his command. Because of this, he was best known for winning the Battle of Elysium for which he was awarded the Star of Terra. (War Hero back story.)

While both of them have excellent weapons training, I'm planing on having him be more adept at using technology than his sister. (Engineer class.) Essentially, he's going to be the polar opposite, or at least a darker version, of Samantha.

Please leave a review and let me know what you think!


	15. Chapter 15

Quintessential Hero

Disclaimer: I own nothing... except the author's crazy imagination!

Summary:Post ME3, and starts during The Avengers movie. Thanks to a certain omnipotent being with a penchant for mind games, Samantha Shepard finds herself in a strange new world.

Author's Notes: As I'm writing this, Quintessential Hero has gotten over 16,000 views! That is freakin' amazing! A gigantic thank you to everyone who has read, favored and followed my story! A special thank you to all my reviewers! You guys drive me to make this an even better story, one comment at a time.

Javik: Bah! In my cycle, people weren't respected fan fiction authors until their story had sixteen million views!

Archer83: Um... Hi Javik... Why exactly are you here? You aren't in this story... sorry.

Javik: I heard your bragging and felt the need to humble you. My work here is done.

Archer83: ... I'm just going to start Chapter 15 now...

Okay... I may have lied a bit, this chapter doesn't have any deep space daring-do... more like low Earth orbit daring-do... in space!

Chapter 15

**Four days later...**

Sitting on the couch watching the news, and having an early breakfast with Tasha, Clint was relieved that they had dodged the metaphorical bullet by being on assignment recently. The mission in Kazakhstan had probably been _way_ less of a pain in the ass, all things considered, after he heard about Samantha's _relaxing _and _pleasant _dinner, when the two of them had gotten back yesterday.

Clint found himself feeling, especially, worried for poor Bruce, '_Hydra and stolen plutonium, I can handle... but having to deal with your girlfriend's angry and highly protective older brother... not so much._'

Natasha would never admit it, but when she heard how Micheal had, if only temporally, rearranged Tony's face, Clint had definitely noticed a gleam in her eye's. Also, the fact that Natasha had instantly taken a shine to Micheal upon hearing this, Clint was guessing, fantastic news, hadn't been a very subtle hint either.

Not that he was feeling jealous or anything, that would just be silly and unprofessional. '_Still... it couldn't hurt to keep an eye on any possible competition..._'

"So, you think things will clam down a bit around here with Ms. Potts back in town?", a wry Clint asked. Pepper had gotten back from one of her numerous business trips the day before they did.

Natasha smirked and replied, "We can hope."

As the elevator doors opened, Clint heard the distinct sound of laughter, " ...mmy, your pulling my leg right? EDI seriously got a hot mech body? ...I bet Joker just _loved _that", he heard Micheal saying.

Clint quietly watched as the two siblings headed for the kitchen, Samantha replying, "Oh you bet he did... So you saw what as going on with them too, before... well you know."

Micheal looked a tad somber, but then his face brightened, "What? You thought it was possible for me to miss _that much _flirting between them? I have to ask, how are Tali and Garrus doing... well your version of them anyway?

As she grabbed a box of cereal for them, a wry grin formed on Samantha's face, "Hopefully... the two of them are trying to make the galaxy's ugliest baby somewhere... or if not, they could always adopt I guess..."

There was a loud crash, as the bowls and spoons Micheal had grabbed, landed none to gently on the table.

Samantha doubled over in laughter at the sight of Micheal's jaw practically dropping to the floor, as he stammered, "Your... Your shitting me right... Garrus and Tali... _really_?"

Shepard just shook her head, saying "Nope, I'm not Mikey... oh... damn... I'm such an ass! I know you told me Tali was-", Micheal cut her off with a wave of his hand, "Don't worry about it Sammy, I was one that asked about them. Wow... good for them, I'm just glad to two of them are happy..."

Samantha's grin returned as she told him, "You know, I caught them in the forward battery once." When her brother's eyebrows popped up, she continued, "It was hilarious... they both tried to make up this lame excuse about one of Garrus's mandibles getting caught on her helmet! Damn... they were adorable... like two teenagers I had just caught in a make out session, when they were supposed to be studying."

Since Clint didn't really understand what hell they were talking about anyways, he went back to talking with Natasha. Then he suddenly realized that he must have been watching Samantha just a little too long, from the subtle frown on her face.

"Something wrong Tasha?", he carefully asked.

Natasha just gave him a slight smile saying, "Nothing._ Nothing _at all."

Clint was outwardly relaxed, but her mild response screamed 'DANGER!' in his mind, '_Oh fuck! ...This is not good, she's only that nice right before she kills a target... Or beats the shit out of them... I better show her how I feel about her... quickly. Okay... what does she like... Think damn it!' _

As he desperately thought of anything to get him out of this mess, it took all of Clint's considerable willpower to not jump off the couch and make a bee-line for the stairwell. '_Naw... wouldn't work, she'd catch up to me and gut me before I got the the ground floor... Okay, plan B.'_

Clint calmly asked her, "Hey Tasha... I was thinking, tonight we could spar a bit, get in some time at the range, maybe go watch that new chick-flick that just came out, and get some ice cream after. Sound good?"

"Sounds like fun, you really are a sweetheart Clint...", Natasha softly said, right before she punched him in the arm at 50% power.

As she hugged into him on the couch Clint couldn't help thinking, ' ... _OWW! Okay lesson learned... don't look at other women for more than a few seconds when Tasha is around... Probably not a good idea when she isn't around either...' _

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks", a literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim.**

A short while later, everyone else had found their way to the kitchen. Very unsurprisingly, Tony was the last to arrive, being dragged in by Pepper.

Micheal had scraped the cereal, deciding it couldn't hurt to mend a few fences, and was making a simple breakfast for everyone at the table.

"Looks like you finally got Prince Charming out of bed... good job Pepper.", joked Steve.

"Yeah... if only...", a smiling Pepper said, as she sat down next to Samantha, asking her, "Okay... Samantha you _have to_ show me how to do that trick I heard you _pulled_ the other day. It would certainly make it easier to get some actual honest-to-god solid food in Tony!"

"What? ... This?", Samantha smirked, as with a bioticly glowing hand, she lifted Tony, and gently placed him into the chair beside Pepper.

"Hey! I _distinctly _remember that someone _promised _to never use her creepy Jedi powers on any of us!", Tony groused, as Micheal put a plate of bacon, eggs, and toast in front of him. Tony just eyed the food, as if it was some horrible trap.

Steve gave Samantha a big grin, thinking back to the game Natasha had shown them, saying, "Gee... he's got a point Samantha, it's all fun and games now... but once your eyes turn yellow, and you start shooting lightning at people... I might get a little worried."

Bruce who was, oddly enough, reading yet another scientific article while eating, smiled at Samantha, and said, "I don't know about that Steve, _personally_ I can see the upside of Tony getting jolted once in a while."

'_Wow... he has a really great smile..._', Samantha mused, even as she was slightly dismayed at the sudden heat in her cheeks. '_Don't blush in front of him dammit! Commander Samantha Alexis Shepard blushes in front of no one!_'

Samantha conveniently put a hand up to her face, and with a sigh, told the room in general, "_Fine_... rise your hand if it's alright for me use my biotic abilities to help out the team... or to embarrass Tony."

A split-second later, seven hands shot up, counting her's, to the utter shock of a disgruntled Tony Stark.

"Et tu Brute...", a scowling Tony, said to Pepper.

Pepper just leaned over, kissed him on the cheek, and whispered in his ear, "Relax Tony. It was just a little joke... Now be nice and eat your food... you might get to stab _me_ later... if your lucky."

Apparently Tony's internal debate over possible food poisoning, versus possible hot steamy sex, didn't take too long, as he dug into his food seconds later.

Just as Tony finished breakfast in record time, Natasha apparently received an urgent alert from SHIELD. She then, instantly, got everyone's attention and informed them of a rather dire situation that was developing.

"Guys... we're getting called up by Fury, apparently there's just been a small explosion on the ISS, (International Space Station) and an on board fire has severely damaged both of the Soyuz capsules that are the crew's lifeboats. NASA is telling SHIELD that, even with the emergency supply in their EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) suits, the crew only has less than a day's worth of air left... maybe less. The Russians are prepping an unmanned Soyuz for launch... but it can only hold three people... and the station has a current crew of six."

A confused looking Steve said, "Okay... Honestly I have no idea of what most of that means... but there has to be something we can do! We can't just let three, possibly six, people die."

Bruce put his hand on Steve's shoulder and gently said, "It's a little difficult buddy... the station's in space... We used to have space ships called Shuttles, but they were recently retired. I seriously doubt NASA could have launched one quickly enough anyway."

"So... the X-127 then?", Clint said.

Natasha nodded, replying, "It's our best bet right now, and it should be ready for launch in ten to eleven hours... but Fury was hoping Tony had something up his sleeve... that could help with this situation."

Before anyone even asked Clint or Natasha what exactly an X-127 was, everyone looked to Tony's grinning face, as he told them, "Well... Fury _does_ have great taste in genius engineers, I'll give him that... I _may _have something..."

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks", a literary device used- Just get to the awesome new tech Tony has invented dammit!**

Everyone had gathered in Tony's lab around his newest creation, and probably the most genius in his mind, minus Pepper who was on the line with NASA and SHIELD trying to get as much information as possible. Suddenly the reason why hardly anyone ever saw Tony, for the better part of the last month, became readily apparent.

Samantha couldn't take her eye's off of the massive machine in front of her. Which, of course, was painted in a garish hot-rod red and gold scheme. She just stared, and thought, '_Jesus... Tony really is a miracle worker... This could definitely be useful.'_

"My fellow Avengers... and Shep's _brother... _may I _humbly_ present my first space capable armor, the Mark I_." _Tony walked over to the huge suit of armor and leaned against the left leg, continuing, "Along with working on some goodies for you guys... in _small_ part due to reverse engineering Shep's busted to hell armor and equipment... which I _may_ have forgotten to tell SHIELD about... I was able to put this baby together faster than I had ever dreamed possible."

Steve was in complete awe as he stared at the massive suit, "It's certainly does look impressive... and I'm guessing that it seems to run on some sort of electricity... That's odd Tony... shouldn't this thing have big rockets on it or something. If your actually planning on going into space I mean..."

Tony swatted Steve's hand away when he went to touch the Mark I. "Sorry Steve... this is _my_ baby... Somehow, I don't think your ready to be boldly going where no Capsicle has gone before..."

Bruce was the next to speak up, "This... _this_ is incredible Tony! But... why the sudden need to build an armor you can use in space... Oh. Right."

Micheal just frowned and said, "Wait... what am I missing here?"

Quickly trying to save her brother any embarrassment, Samantha was just about to explain, when Tony interrupted her.

"Only the fact, _Mikey_, that it seemed like a good idea to build this...", Tony knocked on the armor next to him, "...after that slight case of near death I had... when I _awesomely, and single-handedly,_ I might add, nuked an invading alien mother ship... in space."

Tony found himself highly disappointed at Micheal's reaction to his daring act. The man laughed in his face.

"You going to need to come up with something better than that to impress me Stark... Nuking things is part of my average week... and from what she's told me... Samantha has done a hell of a lot more than I have.", Micheal said, as to motioned to his, mildly annoyed, sister.

Tony was momentarily speechless, before he muttered, "Well _fine_ Commander Nukem! I guess you won't be needing any of my new gear then."

Standing next to Natasha, who was also clearly getting annoyed, Clint had finally had enough, as he reminded both of them, "The two of you are wasting precious time we don't have right now. What gear are you talking about Tony?"

It turned out that Tony had been quite the busy genius engineer/mad scientist. From the damaged ruins of Samantha's armor and equipment, he had been able to build fairly close copies of her gear. Close enough that the three sets of armor, that he managed to construct so far, were far better than any space suit SHIELD had in their inventory. Each was constructed with a built in arc reactor, life support system,a slightly more crude omni-tool, medi-gel dispenser, a full set of thrusters, and wrist mounted repulsors.

The six of them quickly helped coat the three black suits in bright white spay paint, for obvious reasons, while Tony demonstrated the functions of the armor to everyone.

After they had finished,Tony asked them, "Okay kids... who wants to try out Uncle Stark's new toys first? As the _six_ of you can see... I've only had time to get three sets ready... so I suggest we pick whoever is going... quickly."

Natasha said, "Clint has to go. He's one of only a hand full of SHIELD agents, that has actually gotten flight time in on the X-127 SHIELD spacecraft we're going to use to evac the station's crew.

Clint just nodded at Natasha's assessment of him, and told them, "She's right... most agents only have simulator time, at best."

"Yeah... me in an armored suit... in space... what could possibly go wrong? Sorry guys... you'll definitely have to count me out for this one." Bruce said, quickly eliminating himself.

"I'll go. I have all the training and experience you could want for this type of mission.", Samantha calmly announced. She found herself paying special attention to the, _extremely_, worried look on Bruce's face. '_Damn... he really does care about me... Snap out of it Samantha! ...You can deal with that later._'

Steve, being the incredibly honest guy that he is, was the next to bow out. "Everyone here knows that I'd be the first to volunteer for anything... but unfortunately... I don't know enough about this type of situation to be useful." No one missed the almost apologetic tone that filled his voice.

"Looks like I'll be taking the third seat then.", said Natasha.

A dark expression formed on Micheal's face, as he sternly said, "Like HELL you are! There's no _goddamn_ way I'm staying behind. If Samantha goes... _I go._"

Samantha put her hand on his arm, softly saying to him, "Micheal, I know that-"

Micheal instantly cut her off, jerking his arm away from her grasp, and telling her, "This is not fucking _negotiable _Samantha! Period." As he calmed down, Micheal finished with, "Besides... I'm just as qualified as you are. Every marine a riflemen; every rifleman, zee-gee certified, remember?"

Natasha could tell, from the look in his eye's, that Micheal wasn't going to back down. So, not wanting to waste any more time on useless and petty fighting, she simply said, "Micheal's right. He should be the one to go instead of me. After all, I'm not exactly astronaut material... lets get started... It's going to take at least nine hours to get to the X-127 launch site."

"_Finally... _Now, can everyone please get everything packed the fuck up!", Tony loudly complained, while he quickly made a tiny alteration on two sets of armor.

As he finished, an embarrassing thought must have crossed his mind. "But, um... first things first... I uh... _may_ need some help... getting into this thing." As he motioned to his own massive armor.

Just then, Pepper could be heard over the lab's intercom, "Guys... I've got some bad news... Two minutes ago, the rescue Soyuz that the Russian's were racing to launch, blew up shortly after lift off. Looks like your it guys... you better get moving down there.

Steve, Bruce, and Natasha helped Tony squeeze into his prototype, while Clint, Micheal, and Samantha started packing up their gear for the flight to the launch site.

As Tony got strapped in, and started running diagnostics on the suit, Bruce walked over to Samantha, doing his best to completely ignore Micheal's obvious glare, and Clint's knowing grin. Then he put a hand on her shoulder, saying, "I... um... Samantha, I just wanted to say-"

Samantha surprised everyone, especially Bruce, as she pulled him into a light hug, and whispered in his ear, "Hey... no worrying Bruce. We're all going to get through this... _I'm_ going to be alright. That's a promise."

As they parted, and both went back to their separate tasks, no one, not even Tony or Micheal, commented on just how obvious it was that they had fallen for each other.

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks", a literary device used to make you wait just slightly longer as the author gets to the really good part. We have dismissed that claim. **

**Twelve hours, fifty-two minutes later...**

"Less than a minute till we're in orbit!", Clint informed them over their suit radio's.

It was one hell of a bumpy ride, but Samantha couldn't stop grinning from ear to ear as, out the cockpit window, the blue sky faded to black in a matter of seconds.

She quickly checked on Clint and looked behind her at Micheal, seeing that they both had a happy glint in their eyes, behind the small transparent sections of their helmets.

Now that they were out of danger they could relax, for the moment at least. Sitting there, next to Clint in the co-pilot's seat of the X-127, unofficially called Farscape One, apparently it had been named after some old sci-fi TV show it's engineers had loved, Samantha found herself thinking about Tony.

_'For a guy who likes to irritate people constantly, Tony can actually be... thoughtful... once in a while.', _Samantha mused, as she remembered first seeing the change he had made to her suit and Micheal's, a slightly bigger, bight red, 'N7' emblem. Tony had even put it exactly where the faded designator had been on her old ruined armor.

'_Speaking of whom...', _Samantha thought, as she hit the control on her omni-tool to contact Tony, saying, "Samantha to Tony, can you hear me... I can't make head or tails of this screwy user interface you set up on these things... We just achieved orbit, how are things on your end?"

Tony's voice crackled over her comm link, "Oh, everything's just been _sunshine and space bunnies_ up here Shep... This suit still has quite a few bugs to work out, but I managed to get to the station. I've bought you guys some time, by hooking my secondary and emergency air tanks up to the station, and emptying then into an undamaged oxygen supply tank. I've also been preserving as much oxygen as I can for the crew, by fixing a few small hull ruptures that the explosion must have caused... And before you bother to ask me... I checked both the Soyuz capsules out... Both are trashed, beyond even my _genius_ abilities to repair them. I also have more good news... but it comes with a metric-fuck-ton of bad news, on the side."

Samantha firmly spoke into her helmet mic, "Alright... lets hear the good news first Tony."

He replied, with some definite concern in his voice, "I've been talking with the crew, they got the fire out. Unfortunately... JARVIS is telling me that it already caused enough damage to severely compromise the station's structural integrity... In case you missed it, the second part was the _bad news."_

Micheal spoke up from behind her, saying, "We copy you Stark... How long do we have?"

"_Best_ case scenario... Two hours and forty-three minutes... probably less.", Tony told them.

Clint looked over to Samantha and Micheal, warning them, "Get ready guys... we're going to be pulling some serious gees to get there fast enough..." When they both gave him a thumb's up, he continued, "Okay... engines firing in three... two... one... maximum thrust!"

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks", a literary device used to show the passage of time. We have dismissed that claim.**

**Two hours, sixteen minutes later...**

"Sir, the X-127 is seventy-five kilometers away and closing. It is rapidly decelerating... and should match the International Space Station's orbital speed shortly. Estimated time of arrival... one minute, fifty-seven seconds.", JARVIS helpfully informed Tony.

"To any Astronauts and/or Cosmonauts who are _interested_... the_ cavalry_ has arrived...", Tony announced, to a cheering multinational crew of four men and two women.

When had he first arrived, they were astonished to see a huge red and gold machine fly up to their main observation window, and casually wave at them.

As he had waited for the others, Tony had done his best to keep a running conversation going with the crew. It helped to keep him from getting bored as he worked to save them, patching the hull, and reinforcing the damaged areas near the port that Clint would have to dock at.

Once they realized who was helping them, while they were prepping and donning their EVA suits, they managed to fit in a few silly, interesting, and slightly personal, questions for the famous/infamous Tony Stark.

Tony had shamelessly answered all of them, and he was very proud that some of his responses would've made a porn star blush. It certainly helped to boast _his _morale, the fact that it distracted the crew from impending death was just a bonus, _mostly._

_Exactly _one minute fifty-seven seconds later, as he watched the ship approach, Tony heard Clint's voice over the radio, "ISS crew, the... Farscape One, will be arriving at your starboard auxiliary docking port in thirty seconds. Be ready to get aboard the second we have hard dock.

Tony could swear he heard a hint of concern in JARVIS's voice, as he was told, "Sir... the major structural elements of the station are becoming unstable. I suggest you move to a safer distance while the evacuation proceeds."

"Not gonna happen JARVIS... if Clint has to undock before everyone's on board, I can grab any stragglers and get them the hell away from here." Tony replied, as he hovered in space, a few meters away from the docking port.

One small eternity later, roughly three minutes and seven seconds, Samantha, _finally_, contacted him, "Tony we are now carrying six... very relieved... passengers. Time to get the hell out of here!"

As the ship slowly undocked, Tony started moving away from the station, towards the rescue vessel, just as the module closest to him broke off from the station, and headed directly for him.

Less than a second later, Clint was shouting in his ear, "Stark get the hell out of there! NOW!", right as JARVIS prompted him to, "Take evasive action immediately sir!", but the module slammed into him before he even had a chance to react.

Tony quickly used his thrusters to push away from the massive damaged module, and then started to make his way back to the X-127.

"Tony! What's your situation, do you need assistance?", he almost smirked, as Samantha's frantic voice filled his helmet.

As Tony ran diagnostics, and pulled even with the ship, he replied, "Shep... you care... how _touching_. Maybe me, you, and Pepper could do some even better touching later... Whataya say?"

He could hear a quiet sigh, and a mumbled, "_He's fine._", on the comm link, before Samantha, more loudly this time, growled, "If your stupid enough to ask her that... I'm sure Pepper will tell you the same thing that I'm going to right now... Go fuck _yourself, _Tony."

"Sir... I am checking all systems now. Also... that was certainly not the most... _elegant_... way you have tried to proposition a woman.", JARVIS helpfully added.

"Oh, shut the hell up JAR-", Tony was interrupted by several alarms going off at the same time, as he slowing started to spin away from the near by ship.

"JARVIS, give me a status report! What the hell just happened?", yelled Tony.

"Sir... apparently the collision you sustained earlier caused a moderate amount of damage to the suits external armor and internal structure. Thrusters are now at 22% capacity. Warning. I am detecting an oxygen leak. With the secondary and emergency oxygen supplies already depleted... at the current rate of loss... you have ninety-five seconds of oxygen remaining.", Tony was damn sure that JARVIS sounded concerned now.

"Oh. Crap. Well _that's _just fucking great! Um... guys... I might need-", Tony was instantly cut off by Clint, "Tony, I'm already catching up with you. Just hold tight... we'll get you out of there."

Tony watched, helpless, while the ship moved closer to him, as Samantha and Micheal appeared out of the main hatch, clipping themselves onto the ship with safety lines.

The next thing Tony knew, there was a blue glow surrounding his armor, and JARVIS, sounding slightly less concerned, told him, "Sir... some type of energy field has created an air tight seal around the suit. You now have seven minutes and forty-nine seconds of remaining oxygen.

Samantha contacted him on the comm link, and confidently told him,"You can just take it easy Tony, Micheal's going to grab your suit, and then use his thrusters to get you as close to the hatch as possible. How ya doing buddy?"

Tony could clearly hear severe stain in her voice, and he suddenly realized that Samantha most have created what she called a 'Barrier' around the suit, with her biotic abilities.

Watching as Micheal maneuvered into place, attached another line to his drifting suit, and towed him over to the main hatch, Tony quietly replied, "Could be worse Shep... could _definitely_ be worse... I guess now is a good a time as any to apolog-"

Tony was, once again, cut off. This time by Micheal's laughter over the comms, "Hey, Stark... don't bother trying to be a nice guy just because of another 'slight case of near death'! We're saving your ass... and you'll be free to act like your usual frustrating/annoying/irritating/insulting/tactless self... before you know it!" Tony found that statement to be oddly comforting, and insulting, at the same time.

"Okay Tony... now comes the hard part... just trust us and I _promise_ you... your going to be alright.", Samantha gently told him, even as she seemed to be struggling to maintain the Barrier.

With a very shaky voice, Tony snarked,"Why do I, for some odd reason, think this next part is _really gonna suck_?" He couldn't help mentally berating himself as he thought, '_Why the FUCK did I use this suit... without finishing the escape system first?_'

She just sighed, and said, "Because it will... Tony. We can't fit your suit in the ship, your going to have to eject from it. Bruce already warned me earlier... that you haven't finished the escape pod for this suit. Don't. Worry. I'm going to _instantly_ protect you with another Barrier, and Micheal is _going to _grab you, and get you on board, before you can blink."

"Wait... you want me to _what_? Eject myself, _unprotected, _into the cold, dark, ABSOLUTELY FUCKING AIRLESS VACCUUM OF SPACE?, _that's your great plan?_, Tony screamed at them, as he really started to panic.

Tony was physically shaking now, as Micheal positioned himself so that he could 'look' Tony eye to eye, through the clear section of his helmet. With as much confidence and intimidation as he could muster, Micheal said, "Stark you do this... or you die in that suit. Samantha _will _protect you... and I _will _to get you to safety. All _you_ have do to is be a fucking MAN and push the _goddamn_ button!

Before he could let his intense fear stop him, Tony yelled, "JARVIS! Emergency ejection now!" Instantly, the upper section of his armor was blown off, and away form him, by explosive bolts.

Just as he felt the terrible cold, the air about to be sucked from his lungs, Samantha's Barrier formed around him as Micheal rammed into him, pushing him into the ship. Samantha was a split second behind them, as she sealed the hatch, and shouted for Clint to pressurize the ship's interior.

As the Barrier faded, Tony, gratefully, sucked in lungfuls of air, as he gasped and coughed on the deck, shivering violently from the extreme cold he had briefly been exposed to. Tony thought it was the oddest, and funniest, thing as he watched Micheal striping out of his armor, and in a quiet whisper, joked, "Not really in the mood right now, _Mikey."_

Micheal just leaned over him as he started putting his discarded armor on Tony, saying,_"_Here, Sammy, help me get my armor on him, the heaters should start to warm him up while we head back."

One of the station crew members, a Russian woman who had medical training, quickly removed her own suit, and helped Samantha and Micheal with Tony's care.

Tony's shaking started to lessen as the woman smiled down at him, gently running her fingers through his hair over and over, as she said, "Spasibo, Tony."

His mind still numb from pain, exhaustion, and intense cold, Tony just mumbled, "Huh? Sorry... I don't..."

Her smiled widened, as she softly told him, "It means, _thank you_."

A/N: Two separate, but very similar events, to the events in this chapter, actually happened on the MIR space station in real life. (Hull damage/oxygen loss, which was from an accidental collision, and an on board fire.) Luckily for them, it wasn't as bad as my fictional version and they were able to get the situation under control.

If I didn't make it obvious enough in earlier part the chapter, Samantha and Micheal have finally had a chance to truly talk to each other about their very different lives, over the last few days. It's off screen because I couldn't take writing one more completely angst filled chapter! Also, I think it serves the story as whole, that the Avengers gave them complete privacy, especially after Tony's little stunt at dinner.


	16. Chapter 16

Quintessential Hero

Disclaimer: I own nothing... except the author's crazy imagination!

Summary:Post ME3, and starts during The Avengers movie. Thanks to a certain omnipotent being with a penchant for mind games, Samantha Shepard finds herself in a strange new world.

Author's Notes: Thank you so much to everyone who has read, favored and followed my story! A very special thank you to all my reviewers! I apologize for the long wait in between chapters guys, I just haven't had as much time to write as I'd like lately, not to mention writers block as well.

Archer83: Well hi everyone, and welcome back to Quintess- wait... Jack... how come-

Jack: Quiet fucker! I just need... somewhere to chill for a few minutes to get away from those damn clingy students!

Archer83: Okay... Jack that's fine but-

Jack: Bullshit... you'd think I was their fuckin' mom or something... I'm getting tired of all their goddamn hero worship! Just because I barely managed to save their sorry asses and didn't let any of them get dead, that doesn't make me a damn hero!

Archer83: Um... I'll just let you relax...

Chapter 16

**Twelve hours later...**

"JESUS FUCKING CHRIST!", Tony was less than happy when the first thing he saw upon opening his eye's turned out to be a _very_ unwelcome visitor, Loki.

As he desperately looked for anything pointy or heavy to throw at the Douche-bag of Chaos, Tony mused, '_Of all the fucking near impossible things to see when you wake up in a hospital... it just had to be Reindeer Games! Oh no... it couldn't have just been Pepper, Shep, and Natasha, naked with big smiles! I have to get this instead!'_

Loki gave him a slight grin, telling him,"Now Stark, that is _clearly_ not my name. I can see why your comrades found it prudent to get you to hospital. Care to guess again?"

Finding his room irritatingly free of anything deadly, Tony briefly considered chucking his bedside lamp at the god, before slamming his head back onto his pillow, muttering, "Well it's _official_... I've died and gone to hell."

"Oh _fret not_ Stark, let me assure you that you are, rather _unfortunately_ I might add, still in the land of the living. I was merely interested in amusing myself by seeing one of my former vanquishers in a less than... _dignified..._ state of health." Loki said as he apparently tried to look as magnanimous as possible.

Tony just stared at him before replying, "_Okay_ then... I gotta say, not looking a gift horse in the mouth here or anything, but I'm mildly curious why you haven't pulled anything out of your douche-bag-of-tricks and tried killed me already."

Loki frowned telling him, "Well... to be honest I simply do not feel the need to harm you and... _more_ importantly... I don't believe I'd be allowed to. I must say, my being here is actually part of a very odd-"

At that point a suddenly very interested Tony sat up and interrupted Loki, "Wait a minute Reindeer Games... are you telling me that you can't/won't _hurt _me?"

Dripping with sarcasm, Loki responded, "Why Stark, I find your grasp of the obvious to be _astounding. _Now as I was saying, before I was so rudelyinterrupted-"

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks", a literary device used to change scenes in a story. We have dismissed that claim. **

"Code red! Code red! Security report to room 726 immediately!", Pepper and Micheal were startled from a much needed nap by the sudden alert which was being loudly announced over the hospital's PA system.

As they groggily sat up in a small waiting area on Tony's floor, Micheal thought,_ 'Aw son of a bitch! I just get some rack time and... 726... that's Stark's room! God dammit! Figures, Barton and Romanoff disappear to have some 'private time', and of course the shit hits the fan! I wish Sammy had at least woken me up to tell me where the hell she, Rogers and Banner went off to!'_

Before he had even finished his thought Micheal was already sprinting towards room 26, with Pepper close behind, and activating the omni-tool he and Sammy had grabbed off of their armor.

As he went to hit the comm button however, the device started to beep urgently and then Sammy's confident voice came over the line. "Micheal I'm hoping your almost at Tony's door by now, keep Pepper and Tony safe until we get there!"

He neared Stark's room, quickly telling her, "I'm on it! You better hustle, just be to on the safe side!"

"Steve, Bruce and I are coming up from the first floor cafe. Hold tight! The cavalry's on it's way." Sammy told him, as she cut the link.

'_Screw waiting for the cavalry!_', Micheal fumed, as he violently kicked in the door to Stark's room.

The stunned nurse right outside it informed him, "Uh... thank you for the help sir, but the door does have... well it _had a _handle!"

Micheal was too distracted by the sight that greeted him to care about someone, a long line of someones in his case, bitching over minor property damage. Pepper's loud shriek on the other hand, almost made him finch, "Tony! What the hell are you doing!"

Stark had a tall, pale, and rather creepy looking man in a head lock and was proceeding, with utter glee, to choke the shit out of him. As the man frantically tried to get away from him, Stark noticed them, "Oh, hi there guys... Loki meet Pepper and Mikey, feel free to say hello to Loki guys."

Micheal quickly, and gently, guided a still shocked Pepper into the hall saying, "Sorry Ms. Potts, excuse us for a moment." There was a new murderous gleam in Micheal's eyes as he reentered the room closing the, now damaged, door most of the way and approached the slowly asphyxiating god.

The slight hint of a grin formed on his face, as Stark leaned in, and whispered in Loki's ear, "Well... your royally screwed now _buddy_. I already had the _pleasure_ of seeing that look on Big Brother's face."

Micheal calmly watched Loki, much like a cobra observing a mouse. "So your _Loki_... my sister told me all about you... well, she was sort of vague about a couple details... but the _funny_ thing is, I could always read her like an open book. When she was lying, when she was secretly upset, and especially when she was too scared or ashamed to tell me something..."

Micheal instantly drove his right fist into Loki's chest and Stark let him fall, gasping for air, to the floor. Then, kneeling on one knee, lifting Loki's head by the hair so he could look him in the eyes once more, "And if she wasn't about to burst into this room any second now... I'd cut your _balls_ off and sell them to a krogan! Lucky for you... she's _a lot_ more forgiving than I am. But... if you even _look_ at her in a way I don't like... _well,_ you wouldn't be the first self described 'god' that I've killed... You understand me you _sick_ bastard?"

Loki was barely able to sputter out, "Completely!", as Micheal stood up and let him fall back to the floor.

Micheal heard a door slamming open down the hall a few seconds later, and then the sound of several people running towards the room. He could have also sworn that he heard Loki mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like "Stark's fault..." and "...medication."

Before Loki could utter one more word, Stark kicked him hard in the ribs. Micheal gave him points for reacting quickly, but it wasn't quite fast enough. When he had the chance to corner Stark alone, they were definitely going to talk about what exactly Loki meant, and why Tony could barely look him in the eye right now.

Micheal couldn't help grinning at the dumbfounded looks on the 'cavalry's' faces as Sammy, Bruce, and Steve burst into the room, ready for anything.

Loki had already begun trembling at the sight of Banner, but Micheal truly enjoyed the way he trembled just a bit more as his biotic glowing sister glared at the 'god'.

Bruce was the first of the trio to speak up, "You've got to be kidding me. It's official, Asgard's justice system sucks."

Thunder suddenly rolled in the distance and Stark finally chose to speak up, "Looks like Point Break was a little late this time... and wait for it..."

_'Wait for what? What the hell is Stark-', _Micheal got his answer a split second later.

With a tremendous crash, a huge bearded man wearing... _'No I'm not dreaming, that is definitely a red cape.', _came bounding into the room, through what used be to a wall with windows.

"Friends! I bring dire news from As-", the man did a double take seeing Loki curled on the floor, "-gard. Ah, good. I see you have already thwarted my misguided bother, and prevented him from doing any more harm."

"It wasn't my going _bother_, as a matter of fact, coming here wasn't even my _choice._", Loki spat out, as the man gently helped him to his feet.

"Loki, what exactly are you talking about?", a confused Steve asked.

Loki glared at the super soldier, then said, "Not long after I was imprisoned in Asgard, the strangest man I have ever seen appeared before me in my prison cell. He offered to free me if I played by the rules of what he called a 'game'. I accepted his offer, and immediately found myself in this room."

"Loki..." Samantha growled at him, "... what did this man look like? Did he give you a name?"

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks", a literary device used to change scenes in a story. We have dismissed that claim.**

**Location: Unknown **

**Time: Unknown**

_'Oh, this is going to be a delightful bit of fun, it's always so enjoyable to frustrate Q by playing with his toys! The look on that Loki chap's face when that mortal started throttling him! Marvelous! Now... I wonder what would happen if... oh, that is a wonderful idea indeed, time to add another player to this stage!'_

**Carry on dear readers, for I promise you shall be entertained, as well as I!**

**The Next Day**

To say Samantha was angry that Thor had convinced Director Fury to place Loki under the control of Tony and his friends was an understatement. She was livid at the very idea of having to sleep in the same building as that man, even if he seemed to be mostly devoid of his powers for the moment.

The only solace was that Thor assured her it would, hopefully, only be for a short time until the Bifrost Bridge, whatever the hell that was, could be repaired. Appearently Thor's father, Odin, had no intention of letting Thor bring the Tesseract with him, which was the only other alternative.

Went she heard that Fury wanted to personally speak with her, as well as Micheal, she figured it was a good opportunity to change the Director's mind. She wasn't going to take no for an answer on this. The fact that staying in Fury's good graces was probably the smarter idea didn't phase her in the least.

"This should be interesting. What do you suppose he wants to talk about?", muttered Micheal, as their transport landed on the Helicarrier.

Samantha thought it over before replying, "Could be almost anything, I can't blame the guy for having a lot of questions for us."

They were greeted on deck by Deputy Director Hill and lead to the ship's command center, where Fury waited for them. Instead of simply having to answer questions for the man, it turned out Fury need their help with a strange occurrence just had happened less than 3 hours earlier in Central Park, of all places, barely a few miles from Stark's tower.

As they sat down at the conference table Fury began to brief them, "At 05:47 Zulu time, an immensely bright flash of light was seen near the center of Central Park, NYC. When first responders got there they discovered something that is most definitely... an intelligent alien lifeform. Until recently I would have thought that odd, but it seems New York is just swarming with aliens these days."

Samantha spoke up first, " Both of us have had many experiences dealing with aliens. I can see why you called us in on this, from what I've learned so far, the Battle of New York, Loki, and his bother Thor, are the only alien contacts this version of Earth knows about. Well... I guess you could technically call us aliens too, colonists born and raised."

Fury waved her off, "I don't doubt your levels experience, and I really don't care if you happened to be born on another planet. I brought you both here for one simple reason, the alien...", Fury pointed to Micheal, "... mentioned you by name. I find that to be an astounding coincidence, don't you?"

Micheal, who had only been halfheartedly paying attention to Fury, now focused on him completely, "Take me to them. Now. Don't even try to stall me, this ship is the closest SHIELD base to NYC right now."

A look of respect gleamed in Fury's eye as he told them, "Follow me."

**Caution! The author is about to take his own life in his hands, please wish him luck.**

Archer83: Hey Jack... I was just thinking-

Jack: Piss off! I was enjoying being able to hear a few of my own damn thoughts!

Acher83: It's just that these kids, your students, well Jack they most likely don't have anyone left in their lives... they could really use-

Jack: Don't you fucking say it! Do I goddamn look like mom of the fucking year material to you?!

Archer83: Well, I was actually thinking more along the lines of a Big Sister than a mother but... ah screw it! If you don't give a crap about these kids that's just the way it is. Just like you said once, the more people who die that aren't you, only increases your chance of-

Jack: What. The _fuck_. Did you just say about my students piss ant?!

Archer83: ... (Gulp) Sorry if... I mean... So you really care about them... don't you?

Jack: Yes fuck head!

Archer83: ... And you'd die for them?

Jack: You bet your sorry fucking ass I would!

Archer83: Congratulations Jack. Your practically mother material already. ...Please don't kill me.

Jack: Wait... I didn't... Fuck this shit! I... I better go check on them... and Archer? Go fuck yourself!

Archer83: (Waits till she's out of ear shot) ... Your welcome Jack.

**EDIT: After recent events I debated if Jack's story should be removed from this chapter. I have decided to leave it as it is, a symbol of finding love for others in one's heart, and helping those in need. If Jack could do that, what excuse do we have?**

A/N: Sorry for the extra long little side story with Jack this time, I just couldn't help myself! You just know that Jack must be itching to talk like she normally does when not around her impressionable young charges. Somehow I think Loki would jump at the chance to get Tony in trouble, he is the god of chaos after all, and Thor is back, good times! Who, oh who, could this mysterious tormentor of Q and his playthings be? Which Mass Effect character has been dumped on the Avengers door step this time? Find out next time. A million cookies to the first reviewer who gets both right! (I'll PM the correct reviewer and let them know how awesome they are, after swearing them to them to complete secrecy of course.) :)


	17. Chapter 17

Quintessential Hero

Disclaimer: I own nothing... except the author's crazy imagination!

Summary:Post ME3, and starts during The Avengers movie. Thanks to a certain omnipotent being with a penchant for mind games, Samantha Shepard finds herself in a strange new world.

Author's Notes: Thank you so much to everyone who has read, favored and followed my story! A very special thank you to all my reviewers! So... who is interfering with Q's plan, and which character is about to meet Micheal again? Lets get this show on the road!

Archer: Holy merciful crap! Excuse me readers, I um... need to hide, bye!

Wrex: ARCHER!

Wrex: ... I can smell your fear human! (Wrex promptly rips the door off the nearest closet, finding your brave author cowering inside.)

Archer: Uh, hi there Wrex.

Wrex: I only have one thing to say to you human... Put me in this chapter, or bad things will happen. Mostly to you.

Archer: I'm sorry Wrex, I just had a different idea in mind for this chapter. Maybe later? (Your daring author cringes, hoping the end will come quickly.)

Wrex: You got a quad on you Archer! Oh well. Can't say that I'm not a little disappointed, but I'd rather read more of this story than smash you into a mushy paste. For now.

Archer: ... I'll take that a compliment, I think.

Chapter 17

A look of respect gleamed in Fury's eye as he told them, "Follow me."

Fury proceeded to quickly lead them from the Command Center into the bowels of the ship. Passing the Infirmary, Micheal and Samantha noticed they were entering an area labeled 'Medical Research: High Level Containment'. They finally stopped at a sealed door as their guide produced a key card from his long trench coat, which he then swiped, while a retina scanner confirmed his identity.

The three of them entered what looked to be an observation room that allowed access to an airlock, and the small lab/clean room on the other side of the room's large window. On the other side of that window, strapped to a bed, was the sleeping form of someone Micheal thought he'd never see again. A quiet gasp from Samantha a moment later let him know that she knew exactly who it was as well.

The image of a hand slipping just out of his reach filled Micheal's mind, as he slowly walked to the window, his shocked mind thinking, _Oh my God. It's her! She's alive._

A moment later Samantha began whispering in his ear, breaking his daze, "We have to get her out of here! After what happened to me, who knows what SHIELD will do to her."

"I can see from the looks on both your faces that I was right, you clearly do know this alien."

Micheal turned to look at Fury, and with an icy edge to his voice, said, "What did you do to her? Where's her suit?"

Fury looked confused, as he replied, "Suit? For the record, it was found-"

"She.", Micheal said, anger filling his voice now, as he stepped toward Fury.

"_She..._ wasn't in any suit, and was unconscious, when we brought her in. I can also tell you that no harm has come to her, _yet._"

"Yet?", Samantha snapped at him.

Fury glanced at Samantha, telling her, "As you well know from first hand experience Commander, the Council can make some pretty bad fucking decisions. Unfortunately, I can't stop them as often as I'd like. Your... friend is going to be transferred to another SHIELD base within the next two hours."

Micheal looked ready to rip the man apart with his bare hands, as Samantha grabbed her bother's shoulder. The only thing that probably stopped him from knocking Fury out was the sudden sound coming out of the onmi-tools Stark had built for them.

"Shep- Shepard, Micheal is that you? Oh keelah, please tell me I'm not dreaming! Whats happening? Where am I?!"

Instantly Micheal was pressed against the glass, his heart breaking, tears forming in his eye's, as he watched her struggle against the restraints pinning her down. "Your not dreaming Tali, it's me. Don't worry, I'll get you out of there soon."

Seeing her bother in obvious pain, Samantha glared at Fury, quietly telling him, "You people are idiots! She has almost no immune system to speak of, if she gets an infection-"

Fury interrupted her, speaking in a calm tone, "Then it's a good thing we handled her care as well as we did. I brought you two here because I'm not going to stand around and let the Council act on this."

His rage at Fury replaced with admiration, Micheal told him, "You knew what we would do when we saw her? Didn't you?"

"I figure SHIELD will be better off if your able to rescue your friend in a daring escape. I'd hate to see the two of you, and no doubt the Avengers, trashing my ship. It also happens to be the right thing to do."

Micheal seemed mildly surprised by the man's actions, but Samantha wasn't. It had been obvious to her from the first time she met him, and later on the deck of the ship she was being held captive on, that Fury was a decent man.

With a nod of appreciation, Samantha told him, "We wont forget this Sir."

A wry grin formed on Fury's face, "Okay, enough with the mushy bullshit, this is how it's gonna go down. First, your going to knock me out." He opened his coat and retrieved his key card, which he handed to Micheal. "Then, your going to steal my access card and get into the airlock. You'll find that there are enough clean suits available for both of you, as well as one for your young friend in there. You'll have ten minutes to get to the flight deck, where you will take the pilot of a near-by Quinnjet 'hostage'. He's a good friend of mine, and has orders to get you to Stark's tower no matter what. You should all be relatively safe there, at least long enough for the shit storm over this to settle down."

"Not a bad plan Sir, thank you... for everything", Micheal said, as he shook the man's hand.

Samantha watched as Micheal quickly stepped behind Fury, and was obviously taking a second to decide how best to disable him, while doing the least harm possible.

"Hold up Mikey.", she said, putting a grin on Fury's face.

"Mikey... you gotta be shittin' me.", Fury's grin had almost turned into a smile.

As Samantha started to bioticly glow, she told him, "Better wipe that smile off your face Sir, I'd go with a pissed off frown myself. Don't worry, this will only last a few minutes."

Fury nodded, plastering a look on his face that would make a krogan flinch. Then Samantha instantly placed him in Stasis, as she and Micheal raced toward the airlock.

As the exterior door unlocked two lab personnel were shocked to see two strangers approaching them, after sealing the outer door.

"Hey! You can't be in here!", one of them shouted, as Micheal and Samantha quickly dawned their clean suits and air filters.

"Just stay out of our way and you wont be harmed.", Samantha told the frightened man and woman.

When Micheal moved to open the next door the woman picked that moment to speak up, "Stop! You'll damage the specimen if you remove it from containment! We haven't even had to chance to properly research-"

_Oh crap, she did not just say that_, Samantha thought, as Micheal's eye's turned deadly again, when he turned to look at the woman.

Samantha placed both lab techs in Stasis before Micheal got the chance to do anything he might regret. Then, she grabbed another suit off the wall as Micheal turned back to the door and opened it.

There, barely five feet away was Tali, wearing what looked like some type of hospital gown, frantically trying to get free from her restraints. Micheal covered the distance in what seemed like the blink of an eye.

"It's okay Tali, I know you must be terribly scared, but your going to be alright. I promise.", he told her, gently holding her face in his gloved hands, before tearing the straps off of her arms and legs.

Samantha was surprised, and more than a little hurt, when Tali jerked away from her attempt to calm the young quarian down. Micheal's eyes flicked to Samantha's for a moment, seeing the shocked hurt there, before she quickly hid her emotions.

"Who are you?! Don't touch me! Micheal who is this?", an already panicked Tali blurted out.

Samantha backed away as Micheal helped Tali get into the suite. She seemed to calm down slightly as he finished sealing the suit up, and told her, "It's a little complicated, but all you need to know right now is that Samantha is a friend Tali. She's here to help, and you can trust her. Completely."

Tali's voice took on that all to familiar guilt filled tone as she said, "I... I'm sorry for doubting you Samantha, thank you so much for helping Micheal find me."

Samantha could barely keep a grin off her face as Tali started wringing her gloved fingers together, solemnly telling the young woman, "It's okay Tali, I'm glad to be here to help you."

As the two of them helped Tali to get up and into the airlock Micheal said, "Okay, it looks like you have about two hours or so of clean air Tali, if I'm reading the battery display for your filter correctly. We'll grab a few battery packs on our way out just to be safe."

"That should give us more than enough time to get her to Stark. I'm sure he could jury rig something for her in the mean time.", Samantha told him as the two of them quickly stripped out of their suits and grabbed the extra batteries.

As they passed a still faintly glowing Fury, and headed into the corridor Tali, staring at Samantha, said "I'm right here you know! So... how do you know Micheal?"

Besides annoyance, Samantha realized there was another emotion clearly radiating out from the young quarian walking next to her. Jealously.

_Wait... does she think Micheal and I... eww. Okay, that's the first thing I'm clearing up with her once we get her to safety. Well, as safe as being around Stark and his friends can be at least._

"I'll explain later Tali.", was all she said.

The corridors along their escape route were shockingly devoid of personnel, no doubt Fury's doing. They had made it more than half way to the flight deck when the oddest thing happened. A very calm, but obviously wounded, man in an Infirmary gown, robe, and slippers blocked their path. He was also holding a taser, and they quickly noticed two guards laying face down on the floor.

"Good, your right on time... Director Fury asked me to assist you. Lets get to the flight deck, I'll be your hostage for this evening."

The three of them just stared at the man for a moment as he turned and took point. Samantha jogged to catch up, then walking beside him as they all started moving down the corridor, told him, "Thanks for helping us out... um, sorry who are you?"

The man just grinned and said, "Call me Phil."

**Ah yes, "Page Breaks", a literary device used to change the Point of View in a story. We have dismissed that Claim. **

"Nice to meet you... Phil.", said Tali from behind him.

Phil looked over his shoulder at Tali, not phased in the least that she clearly wasn't human, telling her, "You too miss, now lets get you out of here."

Luckily for them, Samantha was able to use Stasis on most of the personnel and guards they came across the rest of the way. Phil's taser claimed one more guard though, while Micheal mainly worried about keeping an eye on Tali. Finally, the four of them burst out onto the flight deck as a near-by Quinnjet's engines conveniently started powering up. They all piled into the vehicle rapidly, with Phil taking the copilots seat.

"Welcome to Puddle Jumper Airlines, this is your get away driver speaking. Please fasten your seat belts and put your trays in their up right and locked position.", the pilot announced, as with a slight jostling they lifted off the deck.

Seeing that his charges were safely strapped in, and that her two friends were telling the young girl, with some amusement, that there was, in fact, no tray she need to worry about, Phil sat back and relaxed.

Phil grabbed a head set, and asked, "Hi John. So are you slumming lately, or did Fury call in on that bet you lost last time?"

"Hey Phil. If you must know, it was worse than that. Mandatory two week vacation, I got bored outta my mind after first few days. Lucky for you, Fury contacted me when I was helping with a little clean up work in New York, and here I am. So, what's your story?"

With the slightest hint of a smirk, Phil told him, "Fury may have suggested that I could avoid being stuck in the Infirmary for another month, if I promised to heal up at Stark's, while keeping an eye on your passengers."

John glanced over his shoulder at the suited figure siting in between his two other passengers, and then, with a small grin, turned back to his controls.

"Always feels good to rescue a hot alien babe, welcome to the club buddy!"

Phil cocked an eyebrow replying, "Who says this is my first time? You forgot to add young John, that girl could be my daughter. Well... you know what I mean. Be sure to say hello to the whole gang for me, will you?"

"You got it. Okay folks, ten seconds to Stark tower! I hope you all enjoyed your flight."

As the Quinnjet settled on the roof of said tower, John leaned over and handed Phil a small wrapped box,"Here buddy, got something for you, kind of a Christmas/Welcome-back-to-the-land-of-the-living thing.

An actual smile graced Phil's lips as he quickly unwrapped the gift, a set of trading cards, "Seriously? The October 1943 A1 Series... and Mint to boot. Thanks John."

The pilot smiled, saying, "No problem. Hey, if you ever need any help babysitting this bunch, I could probably blackmail General O'Neill into giving me a leave of absence for a while."

Phil shook his hand and replied, "I appreciate that John, but there's no need, I got this. I'll most likely just end up getting caught up with the last couple seasons of Supernanny.", then he got up and joined the other three people who had ready exited the aircraft.

John just grinned, then sealed the rear hatch.

_Well, at least Fury made sure that this was definitely not a boring day for him, _thought Phil.

As Phil watched the Quinnjet lift off, he felt a hand gently wrap around his right arm. Somehow he wasn't surprised that it was the young alien girl holding on to him.

"Your hurt, you should get inside, it's freezing out here!", she told him.

Phil couldn't help noticing the small grins on Micheal and Samantha's faces as the young girl he helped them rescue was making damn sure he got inside quickly.

"Thank you miss..."

"Tali, please, call me Tali."

**Ah yes "Page Breaks", a literary device used, in this case, to answer a very important question. We have dismissed that claim. **

Used to being stared at as odd or unique, little did Tali know that the seven stunned looks she and her rescuers received on entering the building had almost nothing to do with her. As matter of fact, they had everything to do with the kind man who had helped her, whom she was carefully guiding to a chair.

Unknown to everyone in that room, they were currently being watched by a very powerful entity, which most of his peers would call incredibly dangerous, childish, and even cruel. Although, a rare few saw him as more than that.

_Oh this is going to be a marvelous game to watch as it plays out. If only he could... well speak of the devil himself!_

The powerful entity's musings were interrupted by a bright flash of light, which was invisible to the rest of the city below him, as the person who he'd just been thinking of appeared, floating next to him in midair. They both simply stared, from a short distance away, at the exciting scene playing out before them.

The far more experienced of the two spoke first, "I know what your planning, and I'm going to ask you nicely to stop Trelane. Once. Please let this spiteful plan of yours go. I have my own reasons for altering the course of events in this world. I prefer not to see it altered any further."

'Trelane' chuckled and replied, "Oh dull, old, gloriously hypocritical Q, I thought you'd like my little alterations. Look how happy I've made your little morals and pretend gods!"

Q sneered at his fellow omnipotent being, "Your only doing that now so you can hurt them all the more later! ... Trelane please-"

If Q had skin at that moment, it would have been crawling at the cackling laughter Trelane emitted, " But Q, that's what makes it so _FUN. _Where's your sense of humor Q? I know for a fact you've done some rather deliciously spiteful and cruel things yourself."

Q frowned, "I was young, foolish, and stupid. Much the same as you are now. I wont let you make the same mistakes I did."

Trelane looked absolutely gleeful at this response, asking, "Father... are you challenging me to a duel?!"

Q darkly replied, "If you have the courage... son."

**End Of Chapter 17. To Be Continued In Chapter 18 ... If I Get Enough Reviews. I'm Kidding!**

Archer: Hey Wrex, before you go, here I have to gift for you. (Your awesome author hands Wrex a large wrapped box, which he promptly rips open a split second later.)

Wrex: If this is a joke Archer, it's not very funny. I'm reconsidering smashing you into a mushy paste right now. (Wrex glares at the large stuffed varren in his hand labeled 'Mr. Rippers'.)

Archer: Oh, sorry Wrex it's not actually for _you_, it's for your first child. I heard Eve was pregnant, and- Gah! (The author finds himself in a krogan bear hug, it's as fun as it sounds.)

Archer: ... Can't ... Breath ... Wrex.

Wrex: Oh right, you humans and your squishy bodies. Thanks Archer. (Wrex puts down the author, who gratefully sucks in lung-fulls of air.)

Archer: Your ... Wel ... come ... Wrex.

A/N: Happy Holidays! and a Happy New Year! to all my readers around the globe! I thought some of you wouldn't mind getting a bit of Coulson in your stockings this year, I know the Avengers won't. So... Micheal has his Tali back, and Samantha will no doubt become fast friends with her, but how will she get along with the Avengers? More importantly, how is poor Q going to deal with his insane child? I guess you'll find out next time. Oh, and yes that pilot who helped out, John, he's totally who you probably think he is. Reviews are the best gift of all, so leave me some will you? :)


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